Imagination Pretty Cure!
by Ryta-chan
Summary: Aiyumi Hatsuzono believed her life was as ordinary as it could be as a girl who was constantly thinking about and creating art. But one morning, she meet Musa from Genesis, the land of all art, and is told Genesis has lost it's power! Can Aiyumi arise and become Pretty Cure to save the muses and inspiration of all?
1. Awaken & Inspire, Cure Create!

Creation, it's was what people here strived to do. To create, to inspire,that's all the people here ever wanted to do. Sometimes nothing else mattered, as long as you were doing something that you could consider creative, there were no problems. If it was dinner time or three am and you were wide awake painting, your parents wouldn't care. As long as you were creating and exercising your imagination, it didn't matter. At least here in Genesis. Nothing but the exploration of creating mattered.

Genesis was a wonderful land where art was present everywhere you looked and the whole land gave off this, inspiring pleasant vibe. Everyone was an artist in their own right, no one was judged by another for their work, as long as the artist was proud of it and let their hard work shine through, it didn't matter what the art looked like. This world was peaceful, everyone lived in harmony with one another. Absolutely nothing could go wrong here. Sure, maybe this world wouldn't be considered perfect to another but to the inhabitants, this was heaven.

But then one day, it all went downhill from there. It only took one person to lose their inspiration forever, their muse, and then it began to spread like wildfire. It only takes one person to criticize and destroy the moral of another and then a chain of hatred is born. It becomes mass genocide and creation then becomes destruction.

There was nothing left to do but wonder, who could've caused such a thing?

The Queen of this land, Mona, pondered long and hard how this could've happened. Each day things got worse and worse. She knew within a short amount of time, the inhabitants would try and overthrow the kingdom. She bit her nails out of habit and thought so hard she came near to receiving migraines. There was one person that she had in mind but she tried to avoid the thought. They couldn't have done this, they didn't have _this _much power. It was, impossible for them. But soon, after realizing there was no one left she came to believe her 'hunch' was likely correct.

Mona stood up from her throne, her slender figure stiff from sitting too long.

"Leo!" She cried, her voice sounding older than she appeared.

A fairy with tanned fur appeared before Queen Mona kneeling on one knee.

"You called Queen Mona?" Leo asked.

"Contact Monochrome, I need to hold a conference with her." Mona said solemnly.

"Monochrome? A-a-are you sure-dama?" Leo asked, his cheeks turning red and his lips pursed as he realized he let his verbal tic loose.

Just before Mona answered, they heard a noise from outside. The two of them rushed towards the closest window where they saw one single fairy throwing rocks angrily.

"Down with the queen!" He chanted as he threw rocks continuously.

"If we don't contact her now and get to the bottom of this, a whole army of fairies will join in and destroy this castle." Mona warned.

"Alright, I'll contact her-dama!" Leo wailed rushing out of the room, leaving Mona alone to watch the fairy continue throwing rocks without ease.

Within an hour, Leo contacted Monochrome and the conference was held.

Monochrome, shadowed into a simple silhouette with only a pair of orange eyes seen hovered in the sky with two other figures, male and female beside her.

Mona remained calm since the first incident of this defecation, but as she stood in front of Monochrome, she could feel her temper rising up from her. The fairies caught sight of Mona and began to throw rocks at her, but she was too high up for them.

"You called?" Monochrome asked in the most childish, intentionally bratty tone Mona had ever heard which didn't really help her temper.

"You caused all this!" Mona screamed, startling herself and sparking the interest of Monochrome. Mona at this point was shaking with anger and worried tears would roll down her cheeks from pent-up frustration.

"I could've, I would've.." Monochrome simply snickered, as she placed her hands on her hips while the two figures remained still.

"Don't you dare deny it!" Mona shouted, heaving in her next few breaths.

"Alright, alright, alright, maybe I did it. I mean, why wouldn't I?" Monochrome jeered.

"How could you? We were two kingdoms and yes, we weren't exactly living in harmony but it didn't have to come to this!" Mona cried.

"But it did." Monochrome said softly, but loud enough for Mona to hear.

"What?" Mona asked in disbelief.

"Think about it, your world always ruled over Decadence, no one cares about Decadence here. These people laugh at our 'inability' to enjoy art. They can't accept that some people will never understand 'art'. Monochrome bunnyquoted, " And we don't have to, because once we're done with both your world and the human world, art won't exist anymore! It'll be nothing but..Decadence."

"Monochrome, this is an issue between our worlds only you don't have to get those of the human realm mixed up in this!" Mona begged.

"Issue?" Monochrome looked around," You think all this is just an _issue_? Because, that's not what I see it as. I see it as your downfall, the end of the art as we know it and since you think it's nothing more than an issue, I'll just, I'll just, just-"

"Monochrome, this isn't as big of a deal as you think!" Mona desperately tried to reason, but with no avail.

Monochrome took in a deep breath, rage beginning to seep out of her," You don't think the up rise of Decadence is a big deal? Well, I think you're heavily mistaken there."

"All you have to do is undo whatever spell you did on my people, and then we can go on with our lives." Mona reasoned.

"Go back to Decadence remaining in the shadows, go back to being overcasted by you people of Genesis and your love of art? Go back to nothing?" Monochrome said, her head lowered and her blood boiling.

Mona stood hesitantly as Monochrome stood shaking.

"NO! You know what, I hate art! It makes me sick! It takes too much work and effort and when no one likes your art all those efforts are wasted! There is virtually no point in art! It drives me insane how much you people practically worship it! It makes absolutely no sense!" Monochrome screamed at the top of her lungs with the weather changing around them and thunder appearing.

"I CAN'T STAND ART AND ANYTHING THAT HAS TO DO WITH ART!" Monochrome screamed.

Mona began to speak with a hint of pity in her voice "Monochro-"

"Enough!" The silhouette woman shouted. All of a sudden, Monochrome was momentarily knocked out and the two figures came close towards her in the few seconds before she came to.

"What just happened?" Mona asked.

A gemstone apparently present on Monochrome's dress began to flicker radiantly but was warped in colours of dark grays and black.

"This..this can't be.." Monochrome said in disbelief.

"All the power from the Muselock..." Mona trailed off in shock.

"It's all here..with this power, I control the entire world's inspiration. I can twist into just what I want it to be..and what I want it to be is.."

"..Extinct!" She yelled and with that, all the fairies were toned down to grey along with the entire realm. There were no survivors of this wave of grey except for Mona and Leo it appeared.

"And now, the human realm gets a taste of grey!" She declared.

"Actually.." The female figure finally spoke up. Her voice was somewhat feminine but very robotic," Scientifically speaking, there would be no way of doing that now with how much power there is in that gem."

"Excuse me?" Monochrome questioned.

"She's correct, with how much power there is in that gem and how large the population of the human realm is, it's technically impossible for the moment." The male figure said, his voice not as robotic as the girl's but a tad monotone.

"Fine, we'll collect power from the humans, we'll steal their Musekeys and let them rot into a world without art!" Monochrome declared as the three of them disappeared.

"We can't let that happen. Leo.." Mona called upon.

"Yes, your majesty?" Leo responded.

"There's one fairy I know who's definitely not affected by this grey spell, and I need you to get her so we can send her into the human realm."

"Wha-?! What's she gonna do-dama?" Leo asked.

"She's gonna awaken the Pretty Cure."

"The Pretty Cure?! But I thought.."

Yes, I know, everyone thought they were just some myth because there could be no such thing as legendary warriors who fought for things like art.." Mona said bitterly," But you know what? They're real, very real.. and Musa is going to be the one to find the Pretty Cure who will save the world's inspiration."

"Are you sure-dama?" Leo asked.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life." Mona responded.

It was a regular day, it was just like any other day and for some reason lately, Aiyumi Hatsuzono decided to get up early. She woke up, unsure of what time it was with her silky, long black hair in a mess as she looked at her clock.

"Seven-twenty." She cheered quietly to herself. She leaped out of bed and stretched, making sure none of usual morning routines would wake up everyone else just yet. She grabbed her school uniform that consisted of a blue-grey shirt with buttons that had a teal sailor collar with a single aqua stripe. She smiled down to the green bow with a silver button in the center of her shirt as she pulled on her sea blue skirt. After putting on the rest of her uniform, she opened her closet door which revealed a large amount of quite fashionable shirts and a rather untidy floor. She smirked at how great her wardrobe was but that wasn't why she opened her closet. She looked at her closet's interior door where a mirror resided and held out the comb in her hands in front of the mirror. She combed and combed, while admiring how smooth her hair was this morning and at how little knots she appeared to have. After she was finished combing her hair she examined herself thoroughly in the mirror. Something appeared to be missing. Aiyumi snapped, mouthing an 'A-ha!'. She walked a few feet over to her hair accessory basket and retrieved a large cyan bow. She went back to the mirror and placed it at the back of her head. She nodded and gave her reflection a thumbs up. She walked downstairs, got herself breakfast and completed the rest of her morning routine. She was out of the house by seven-fifty and managed to catch the early bus for school.

The sun was rising very early as it was that time of the year, it gave Aiyumi something to want to wake up to, well that was one of the reasons she woke up early.

As she got to school,she placed her things in her locker quickly and sped walk across the hall, making a left turn and another left turn, reaching the school's Drama room. She peered through the small window of the door and in the room was the Drama teachers and two boys, one of them Aiyumi was giving a lot of attention to.

"Rikuto's such an amazing actor.." Aiyumi's blushed as she watched the boy with light brown hair, peachy complexion and bright green eyes preform. He thankfully didn't catch sight of Aiyumi's brown-eyed stare and as she saw him tilt to her direction, she hid under the door's window.

"I really hope we preform on the same night, he's so cute and, inspirational in a sense. She heard footsteps coming to the door and quickly she shot up and booked it out of there.

She went to her locker and sat against it. She checked the time on her ancient Whitevine phone while gazing at the students who'd pass her by.

"Twenty minutes left until class." She said quietly to herself.

Aiyumi sighed and thought about her morning was so far. The highlight of her day was definitely getting to see Rikuto preform and if she was the slightest bit lucky today, maybe Rikuto would talk to her. Or maybe, she could get his attention if she got to preform her part of her the school play today in Drama class. Maybe she could pretend to screw up a line just to get a reaction from him. She pursed back a smile at the thought. Thankfully, Rikuto wasn't someone she had a hard time getting the attention of, and he'd laugh at just about anything, he was so childish.

As she was lost in her thoughts, she began to blush to herself. The thoughts of sweet, innocent love were Aiyumi's favourite, she considered them a blessing really. If felt good to have a crush sometimes, it gave one, well her, a small sense of ambition and hope.

"Aiyumi!" She heard a voice that sounded like it belonged to a teenaged girl call. She recognized the voice almost instantly and shot her head up. Walking up to her was a fair-skinned girl with maroon hair that traveled to her shoulder blades worn wavily down and sport purple eye shadow. She donned the same uniform as Aiyumi, but her uniform lacked the stripe on the collar. Beside her was a bespectacled girl who stood about two inches taller than the first girl who too was fair in complexion but had bright ginger hair.

"Morning ladies," Aiyumi greeted as they walked past her with a smile on her face.

"Shinobu Akizawa and Matsuri.." Aiyumi said quietly to herself. The girls were both a year younger than Aiyumi, but this year, age gaps didn't seem to matter to Aiyumi. During the earlier part of the school year, a lot of Aiyumi's friends were a grade above her. Now, it appeared to be reversed, even Rikuto was a year younger.

"Well, now there's fifteen minutes left, I guess I should go do something I guess." Aiyumi stated. She got up from her spot and decided she walk outside around campus. As she went outside she stretched and let the rising sun penetrate her skin. She looked around her, admiring the surroundings she was quite used to. Everything was normal; The sky was a faint shade of blue and a few clouds were in the sky, but they'd be sure to disappear after an hour or so. The freshly cut grass was as fresh and full of dew as ever, it's green colour was something Aiyumi always enjoyed. The trees were all in place as they were supposed to be, their buds slowly sprouting as it was only late spring and their branches near barren. The only trees in sight to flourish were the Christmas trees in the very small 'forest' near the school.

Suddenly, Aiyumi remembered something.

"Hey that's right!" Aiyumi said aloud, not caring about the few who shot her dirty looks.

Aiyumi lowered her voice," Today me and the gang are heading to the new art gallery's grand opening this afternoon."

Aiyumi smiled to herself, then looked towards the tiny forest.

"Maybe I should make today a day of firsts."

Confidently and without a second thought, Aiyumi marched into the forest, ready to face the unseen that could've taken refuge in here. She never heard many stories about this place. Just things like, 'I lost my textbook here' or 'This place is packed with mosquitoes during the summer' nothing out of the ordinary. But, maybe there was something more. It wasn't like she had anything to lose.

As she walked in she felt a shiver make it's way down her spine. She shook off the feeling and remained calm. After three steps in, she felt uneasy as she heard this, unearthly, incoherent chant that she failed to make words out of. But the closer she got, the clearer the voice and the words became.

The voice sounded, very child-like, not eleven or eight year old child-like, like three years old at most. The words didn't exactly sound like they made sense. It sounded slurred together for a moment, it sounded like 'precure'. Aiyumi knew that probably wasn't right so she quietly took one step closer. She stood behind a tree and caught a glimpse of the creature speaking. It was far from human that was for sure. It was a small white fairy with teal hair in high pigtails and a rainbow collar. Aiyumi was only able to see the back of the fairy but watched intently as it kept on moving.

"Pretty Cure-dayo? Where are you-dayo?" The fairy called as it turned around facing Aiyumi's direction. After finally seeing the face of the fairy, Aiyumi had a cuteness overload and just about lunged for the fairy.

"Too cute!" She cried shamelessly.

"Agh!" The fairy screamed as it dodged Aiyumi.

Aiyumi hit the ground with a thud but no actual damage, her non-existent chest breaking her fall.

"Who are you-dayo?!" The fairy shrieked as it inched away from Aiyumi.

"Better question, what are you? Aiyumi asked with a slight smirk.

"I am Musa-dayo!" The fairy introduced.

"I asked what are you." Aiyumi repeated unamused.

"A fairy! I come from Genesis and I'm looking for the Pretty Cure." Musa explained. Musa then let out a gasp.

"Are you the legendary Pretty Cure-dayo?" Musa asked anxiously.

"I could be." Aiyumi said as she laid her head against the ground while examining her chipped, self-done manicure.

"Then let me come with you-dayo!" Musa cried.

Aiyumi held in a snicker and sat upright.

"Are you sure? 'Cause, where I gotta go..there's no going back." Aiyumi said," But if you insist.." Aiyumi propped the fairy on her shoulder and hid her within her hair.

"Are we headed to an inhuman terrain where all kinds of living creatures have their live force sucked out of them from one touch by the beings of darkness-dayo?" Musa asked in utter fear.

"Nope, somewhere even worse!" Aiyumi replied.

"..Where?" Musa squeaked trembling in complete terror.

"High School!"

Aiyumi made it just in time for class. Her friends she sat with were anticipating her arrival as it was usually odd for her not to appear a couple of minutes before class, considering her locker was just outside the room.

"Well, aren't we punctual?" Shinobu said in her typical sassy tone. Shinobu was all sass all the time. Aiyumi took her sass lightly while their two friends were frequently get annoyed by it.

"Well, I'm usually on time, so I think I can make this one exception. And then there's you~" Aiyumi sneered.

"Burn!" Akio, one of the classmates they sat with shouted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shinobu asked.

"Well, yesterday you did formally ask the teacher if you could show up late." Aiyumi said with a shrug.

Shinobu's mouth was agape," So? I'm done all my work right now. I've even printed my logo for the company project."

"Yeah I know, and that's only because you only made your logo within twenty minutes." Aiyumi pointed out with a slight scoff.

"Well I am very proud of my logo, thank you very much."Shinobu responded as she pulled it out from her binder to look at it. The logo was for her fake company called 'Hardly Hair' and the logo was of a girl's head with crazy black, green, and purple hair and her whole head looked like it was made from a really simple program as she solely used the basic shapes tool for it.

Aiyumi laughed once more and got to work. Meanwhile, Musa was inside Aiyumi's bag observing her surroundings.

"There's so much art here-dayo.." She remarked.

After school, Aiyumi waited by her locker for a few of her friends to head to the Art gallery. They were all going today in a group, that was their consensus. One by one, each of them arrived at Aiyumi's locker looking eager as ever.

The first to appear was Aiyumi's bespectaled best friend Kai. Kai was pretty tall for his age, being roughly six feet and was easy to find in a crowd due to his height and strawberry blonde locks.

"Asuko's still coming right?" Kai asked anxiously as he looked around for the girl. Aiyumi sighed and flatly responded.

"Yep, she's over there getting her stuff from her locker." Aiyumi simply flailed her arm in Asuko's direction while still facing Kai. It wasn't like she had anything against Asuko, it was more like, she and Kai were too friendly. Sure they dated a couple months before due to Aiyumi but then they broke up because Asuko found out something crucial about herself that forced to not like Kai, or men in general.

Asuko approached the two and poked Kai on the nose while Aiyumi just stared at the strange duo.

"That's my nose." Kai declared. He then poked as Asuko on her nose.

"Hello," She said in a tone different from her usual.

Aiyumi simply raised her eyebrows and tilted her head back with a groan. The two didn't seem to notice Aiyumi's reaction and none of noticed the last pair of their group appeared.

"Kirino, how long have you two been staring at each other." Kaoru asked Kai in her average raspy tone. She looked up at the two with little interest while Shinobu watched with intent.

"I'd say about a minute and a half." Asuko responded without taking her gaze away from Kai.

Aiyumi took a gigantic sigh and stood herself in front of the two.

"Enough~!" Aiyumi yelled.

"Now, off to the gallery!" Aiyumi cried as she led the group. They took the bus and got off after fifteen minutes and arrived at the gallery. It was so large and a there was giant set of stairs leading to the entrance of the cream white building. Lots of people, from little kids to seniors were gathered around the gallery, presumably waiting for others and the sight of all these people together for the sake of art just made Aiyumi squeal with delight.

"Sekai no Genjutsu.."Asuko read as she put on her glasses.

"World of Art." Kai read the translation.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Kaoru asked as she began to walk up.

"She's right, follow Kaoru~!" Aiyumi cheered.

As they entered the building, they were in awe at all the art amongst them. Picasso, Da Vinci, the whole lot. There was modern art, famous pieces, sculptures, paintings, murals, and in one room was filled with musical instruments. Everyone was admiring all the art around them and it appeared everyone had this one piece they were simply drawn to.

Aiyumi's eyes were glued to this one piece that was somewhat plain really but was made with one of the most tedious mediums of all: chalk pastel. The picture was of a white little house at sunset. The sky was what really caught her for this piece. It was all these light shade of blue, periwinkle being the most were also hints of magenta present as well. The house had few windows and from the inside one could see the interior of the house was yellow.

"This was the piece I did for my art enlargement project last semester." Aiyumi stated," I'm not so good with chalk pastels so it didn't turn out as great as I hoped."

"But I feel like if I didn't choose to do this piece, I'd probably just walk past it here today. "

Kai was looking at a piece with a very prominent pop-culture theme. The bright colours and overall simpleness drew him in. It wasn't necessarily thought-provoking, which he liked but it wasn't dull either. Asuko was looking at a piece that was a portrait of a woman from the Renaissance period. Her face was small and her eyes seemed to have a vacant look to them but there was just this feel of elegance that surrounded her. Kaoru was eyeing a piece that featured two rabbits in front of a log. She was amazed at how the artist was able to get the texture of the rabbits' fur just right and managed to make it look so realistic.

Shinobu walked around, still looking for a piece that would catch her eye. Nothing really caught her attention just yet and she kept on walking until she found a piece. She did see a piece, but it necessarily provoke her thoughts or make her gawk in admiration. For a moment, she was confused as she saw the piece form the corner of her eye. She walked closer to it to get a better look at it.

The piece was of a beige-complexioned woman was long wavy dark hair with purple and green gradienting at the bottom. She was at a side-profile and only her head was the in the picture. Her expression was neutral and her eyes were cat-like.

"Oh my god.." Shinobu said as her eyes boggled out of her head. It looked just like her fake company logo for class!

A tall man with graying hair walked up towards Shinobu and stood by her side.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" He asked her.

Shinobu simply walked off, with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Miss?" The man called out.

Aiyumi was sitting at a bench watching her friends watch the paintings. She felt, almost joyful that she brought everyone together like this. She wasn't always much of a talker but she was able to do at least this much.

"This place is sure beautiful-dayo,"Musa said as she popped her head out of Aiyumi's bag.

"You're still here?!" Aiyumi yell-whispered.

"But of course-dayo!" Musa said as she jumped out of the bag. Aiyumi grabbed Musa and laid flat on the bench, arousing people's attention.

"See, um, I'm a professional at planking." Aiyumi explained to those still staring. She heard someone mutter, 'Planking's dead.' and returned her attention to Musa.

"Why are you still here? I thought you were going to look for those Pritz Cures." Aiyumi whispered, semi-sure she said the name of the affliction correctly.

"It's _Pretty Cure. _And I never said that-dayo! Well, I did but that was after you abducted me and took me into high school-dayo.." Musa shot back.

"Oh, so that's what we're calling it? When really, it was you who asked to tag along because you thought I was a Pretty Cure..I still don't know what that is you know."

"I don't think I should waste my breath if you may not even be the Pretty Cure." Musa said in rather bitter tone.

"Well, why don't you head off and go look for them and maybe just, um, I don't know, leave?!" Aiyumi spat, still whispering.

"Fine, I will-dayo!" Musa declared as she and Aiyumi turned their backs on each other. Suddenly a scream was heard and everyone turned their heads to the direction it came from.

"That sounded like..Shinobu.." Aiyumi said as eyes shrunk in fear. The classy individuals of the gallery were now reduced to a terrified, jumbled mob. The security guards of the gallery evacuated everyone out of the building as more horrific sounds from the one room began to be heard.

Aiyumi was just about to join the mob but Musa was heading to the direction of the room where the screams came from.

"What the heck are you doing?!"Aiyumi yelled.

"This is the doing of Decadence! The Pretty Cure will be found here for sure-dayo!" Musa cried.

"Deca-who?! You know what, no, you're not going in there." Aiyumi said as she came down to swoop up the fairy.  
"I have to go-dayo!" Musa whined," This is going to be the place where I find the legendary Pretty Cure! And I thought you said you wanted me to leave.."

Aiyumi pursed her lip in thought. She could just go with her friends and evacuate the building, or she could go with Musa and maybe help her locate the Pretty Cure and rescue Shinobu. What was more important, one person or everyone else? Well, definetly the one person if they were in danger and everyone else was perfectly fine.

"K, I'll come with you. Just to save Shinobu and help you find the Pretty Cure." Aiyumi decided. Musa and Aiyumi ran to the room, fear and anxiety rising up in Aiyumi and a sense of duty flowing out from Musa.

The two came to a halt as they approached to door, noticing a stone-cold grey lock on the door.

"I doubt that was there before." Aiyumi stated.

"It's an Artlock..Decadence is definitely here. There's only one way to open it.." Musa declared. From under her rainbow collar, she retrieved a small golden key encrusted with rainbow gems, the center gem being a kaleidoscope of all the colours.

"And that's suppose to magically open that lock?" Aiyumi questioned, her voice reeking of doubt.  
"Basically." Musa said as she handed Aiyumi the key.

Aiyumi took a deep breath as she took the key and inserted it into the lock.

"Here goes nothing.."

The door opened, revealing a scene Aiyumi wished she didn't had to have seen. Shinobu was on the ground out cold and there was a large monstrous being in the shape of a frame behind her. Besides the monster was a woman dressed in silver with what appeared to be bar-like wings on her back, looking like android from another century with silver hair, and a crown looking like a gear and lifeless grey eyes.

The woman began to speak,"There's no scientific way a mere human could get in here without the help of a.." The woman looked to the ground and spotted Musa. She didn't continue her sentence and rolled her eyes. Her tone was just as robotic as her appearance.

Aiyumi wasn't listening to the woman, her focus was instead latched on the enormous frame-monster near Shinobu.

"Where did that come from..?" Aiyumi asked meekly with her heart racing and her body shaking.

"It appears to be from your friend-dayo.." Musa said in a grim tone.

"I,uh,well,er,uh..how?!" Aiyumi shrieked.

"Do you see that key in the corner of the frame-dayo?" Musa asked.

Aiyumi squinted and looked towards the frame,"Yeah, I see it."

Musa replied,"That's her musekey and it's been manipulated into powering this, this-"

"-Vandalart." The woman finished.

"Uh..." Aiyumi sounded uneasily as she looked at her surroundings. Nothing big, or out the ordinary. You know, just a being from another world by your side and your classmate knocked unconscious before you. Not to mention a huge monster made from said classmate's will and a creepy robo-chick commanding it. Yeah, total run-of the-mill stuff.

"Why isn't the Pretty Cure here yet-dayo?!" Musa cried.

"In the given circumstances, why would she come?" Aiyumi asked aloud, sparking everyone's attention.

"Huh?" Musa simply said, it appeared to be all she could say actually.

"Well..you all seem too dependent on a girl you don't even know who has been given magical powers to break through one of these windows and save the day. While, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, you're all just waiting for a girl who doesn't exist."

"So then, why are you even here?" The woman flatly asked.

"To check on my friend." Aiyumi simply responded as she casually walked over to Shinobu, but was blocked by Vandalart.

"She's done for, worthless creature." The woman simply pronounced.

"Worthless? Excuse me? Exactly how is my friend, the creative and weird Shinobu, come close to worthless?" Aiyumi questioned.

"Maybe because she ripped off a piece of art without even knowing it." The woman said as she chin-pointed to the painting that Shinobu allegedly copied.

"Oh, Shinobu.." Aiyumi gasped.

"You know what, that wasn't her fault. She didn't mean for that to happen, I know it!" Aiyumi claimed.

"How can you be so sure?" The woman asked coolly.

"Because she wouldn't rip off someone else's work. She's inventive and zany and she wouldn't stoop so low as to mimicking someone else's work and calling it her own!"

"And besides, how would you've have been able to extract her Musekey if she did copy it on purpose-dayo?" Musa pointed out.

The woman gritted her teeth," Well, it's not as if it matters.."

"What?" Aiyumi asked in pure disbelief, not entirely able to keep up with this girl.

"All art is the same, it requires things like time and efforts that get wasted because after years and years everyone realizes.."

"..Art can't be around forever, therefore it's just as worthless as those whose strive to create it."

Aiyumi's jaw dropped at this woman's insensitive words. How was she able to see things with a bleak perception? She really was a robo-chick, all cold and emotionless. Wonder if she'd even react to male supermodels.

"Art is not a waste of time!" Aiyumi shouted in pure rage," It gives people ambition and hope, it inspires those around it , it can be what get people through the day! And it's not just paintings or sculptures, those was paint, those who create..they're doing what they love! And that can never be considered time wasted. So, I'm sorry you think like this but I know for a fact.."

"..I could never believe your words!"

Suddenly an array of colours, most prominently green appeared and showered Aiyumi within it.  
"I..what's going on..?" Aiyumi asked.

"Aiyumi, you're a Pretty Cure-dayo!" Musa squealed with delight.

"Wha..? As if, I'm just some ordinary weirdo who likes to stand up to chicks she doesn't even know, haha.."

"Aiyumi, this is serious!" Musa raised her voice,"See this compact you have in your hand-dayo?"

"Whoa, when that get here?" Aiyumi asked as she held it up and examined it.

"That's your Illumicase. It's how you're going to transform into Pretty Cure-dayo." Musa explained.

"Transform?! I'm gonna transform?! Will I be taller? Will my eyes change colour? What about about a fork in tongue? Could I get larger-?"

"Aiyumi, focus!" Musa shouted," Now open it, let it catch your reflection and say, Pretty Cure, Imagine Go!"

"Got it. When I transform, I'll be able to save Shinobu right?" Aiyumi asked.

"Yes."

Aiyumi nodded her head and open the Illumicase.

"Pretty Cure, Imagine Go!"

The lights became brighter ,so bright that Aiyumi was fully enveloped in them, like she had been transported to another world. Aiyumi's school uniform was traded in for a dress with many shades of green with a section of the skirt being white with rainbow polka dots. Under that section were two layers of ruffles and two layers of frills. A pair of yellow-green arm warmers appeared on her forearms, one reaching her elbow and the other only covering her wrist. A ribbon with an emerald was tied around her waist and her shoes were replaced with small-heeled olive toned boots with the same rainbow polka pattern on them. She twirled around, her hair changing from black to emerald green and celadon was put into a ponytail with a Chartreuse headband that had a paintbrush accessory on it.

She finally opened her now aqua eyes and struck a pose with her right arm extended high.

"Inspiring the artist that longs for a muse, Cure Create!" She introduced.

"What..? I was the Pretty Cure this entire time..? Aiyumi looked at herself in disbelief.

"Well, now that there's an obstacle, Vandalart, get rid of her." The woman commanded.

The Vandalart came charging towards her and Create yelped while picking up Musa and running the opposite direction.

"Cure Create, you have to fight it-dayo!" Musa instructed.

"Hell nah, I'm out of here!" Create shouted as she continued to run," I didn't think I was supposed to go against it, I can't do that! I'm not a, a, a.."

"...Magical girl-dayo?" Musa finished," Come on, Aiyumi, you have to do something, you didn't become Pretty Cure by cowering down and what about Shinobu?"

Create stopped running for a moment and looked to Shinobu's direction. She was in trouble and that's why Create came in the first place.

She put Musa down and ran in the direction of the Vandalart.

"What is she doing-dayo..?" Musa asked.

"Full-throttle...kick!" Create cried as she threw a kick into the Vandalart's leg.

"It's going to get up again, do something!" Musa cried.

"Gotcha, gotcha!" Create shouted.

She concentrated her power and instinctively held out her hands.

"Pretty Cure.. Pigment Storm!" Create cried as splatter of nuclear paint erupted from her hands. Somehow, it was enough to knock the Vandalart down once more.

"..The hell..?" Create said as she looked at her hands.

"Create, now's your chance, purify it-dayo!" Musa shouted.

"Um, alright.." Create replied, slightly unsure of what to do. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

She opened them again, instincts taking over more.

"Pretty Cure..." Suddenly the atmosphere turn green and was decorated with splatters of paint.

"Is this gonna happen every time I do this..?" Create asked as she checked out her surroundings.

"Cure Create-dayo!" Musa shouted.

"Right, right, admire later."

She raised her left hand in the air and threw it back down swiftly, entrapping the Vandalart in what appeared to be a cage made from a, canvas?

"..Inspiration..Sensation!" Create shouted. The Vandalart was purified and all that remained of it was an insanely detailed drawing of it on canvas with Shinobu's Musekey returning to her.

"Next time, you'll be the one whose done for.." The woman said in one of the coldest tones Create ever heard, but that didn't stop her from asking the woman something.

"Wait, one thing before you leave!" Create slurred her sentence together to make sure the woman would hear it.

The woman stopped and wait for Create to ask her question.

"What's your name?" Create asked rubbing a finger under her nose.

"Ai..yu..mi.." Musa's mouth was agape in utter shock. Why couldn't she just let her leave before she destroyed her?

The woman didn't respond for a moment and just kept quiet. Finally, she answered.

"Neodia."

She disappeared, without even hearing Create's 'thanks!'.

Create detransformed and rushed to Shinobu's side. The girl came to within a couple of minutes, finally putting Aiyumi at ease. Shinobu blinked a few times and sat up straight very slowly. It appeared she forgot what just happened for the moment and would remember quickly. But she was just about to ask what happened came to her.

"Oh, that's right..I copied someone's art without realizing it.." Shinobu said with a hint of shame in her voice.

"It's ok, it's not like you did it on purpose." Aiyumi reasoned.

"Yeah but if anyone were to look at my piece after seeing that one..they're going think I did rip it off." Shinobu sighed.

"Well, now that you know there's a piece similar to yours out there, what do you think can do about it?" Aiyumi asked.

Shinobu sighed," I could probably revamp it a bit, after all, the teacher didn't seem so impressed with the final product."

"Hey, maybe I could incorporate cats into my logo-No wait! My company will be a styling salon _for cats_!"

Aiyumi chuckled awkwardly, at least Shinobu was back to her old self. She then looked to Musa, currently residing in her bag and whispered,:

"You have some explaining to do."

Musa waved a hand, er paw, in her direction dismissively with an unusually mellow look on her face. Aiyumi simply rolled her eyes and the three of them left the gallery.


	2. C'mon, I can act & still be Precure!

"So.." Aiyumi began, with a pop of her tongue following shortly. The two of them had just parted ways with Shinobu as they walked her home and were now inside Aiyumi's room. Her room was, unique to say the least. There were Kopik Ciao markers neatly in a set beside her twin sized bed that was covered with a too big, brightly coloured comforter. Her whole room was secretly an Art Haven with things such as pencil crayons, acrylic paint, art pencils, watercolor pencil crayons, more markers, gemstones, rhinestones, glitter,modeling clay, the works. Most of it was simply kept in a corner and the rest out of sight just to keep her room 'neat' like her mother requested. The rest of her room was this, straight mix of girly to tomboy. There were two tubes of bright pink lipstick on her desktop, where a lot of her figures and dolls (she merely collected them) resided and the walls of her room were adorned with posters from her favourite anime, Haruto and of other things she enjoyed. If someone did know any better and step foot in her room, they'd probably believe she was a thirteen year old boy who had a sister that would dump all her girly stuff in here when she ran out of room.

"..You kinda got a lot of explaining to do, pretty sure you're aware of that though." Aiyumi finished as she folded her arms with her legs crossed on her bed. She looked down at Musa who sat directly in front of her. Musa was in thought,. unsure of where to begin or how she'd explain herself without sounding deranged, or even worse, _chichéd. _

"Where do you think I should begin-dayo?" Musa inquired.

As Aiyumi impatiently closed her eyes, her mouth twitched slightly. At this point, she finally lost her cool.

"Where do ya start? Hm, well..." Aiyumi took a deep breath.."How about why that Robodia chick appeared and started terrorizing stuff and then made a monster from my friend, and then how about you could tell how I turned into this hella cute girl with green hair who's apparently powered by paint and then go on about everyone's motives here 'cause, clearly, I have no clue!"

For some reason, Musa seemed the least bit fazed from Aiyumi's reaction. It was sorta strange for Aiyumi, actually. Musa blinked her eyes a few times and finally began to speak.

"That woman came from Decadence-dayo." Musa declared.

"I still don't what that is too," Aiyumi interrupted.

"Decadence.." Musa said, sounding just as impatient as Aiyumi," Is this, kingdom that used to coexist in a near peaceful, well rather neutral, way with Genesis, where I come from. Genesis is the land of creation, while Decadence is more logical but it also is inartistic and those who inhabit it fail to appreciate art. Just like how we of Genesis can't really get to work and solve math problems with such success. Think of them as the left and right sides of your brain-dayo."

"Now, in Genesis, inspiration is practically everywhere and no one judges or criticizes your art when they know that you've worked hard on it. But lately, people have been losing their muses and they've all been bashing each others work, discouraging others to create and making them want to, destroy. Just as the others began to revolt against our queen, Mona, she called a conference with Monochrome, the queen of Decadence, who she believed was responsible for this. The more the two began to argue at the conference though, the worse things became. The Muselock, which is where inspiration itself comes from, was drained of its' power when Monochrome snapped and the power was all found in a gem on her dress. Monochrome took advantage of this power and cast a grey spell on those of Genesis, with only me, Mona, and Leo as survivors. Then Mona sent me here to find the Pretty Cure, which is apparently you. She also said Monochrome's coming for your world next and they plan to sap out every human of their inspiration, but need to get their energy from a few others first to acquire the energy of the Muselock at full power."

"That's why Neodia took the Musekey from your friend-dayo." Musa explained.

"But wait, what's a Musekey? Aiyumi asked.

"It's where people harbor all their inspiration, where their imagination activates, where they feel they've located a muse-dayo" Musa responded," Oh and that reminds me, from now on, you have to open your Illumicase with your Musekey-dayo."

"Why?"

"Because once you become a Pretty Cure, your Musekey takes a physical form in order for you to put it to use, it's kinda like its way of saying "I'm here to help for sure-dayo!"

"Then, where is it?"

"Well, it should've manifested itself into a physical form by now but that is good ques- Wait, were you where that hair-clip the entire time?" Musa questioned.

"No, I found it on my desk when we came in so I kinda just put it on, 'cause why not." Aiyumi shrugged.

"That must be the Musekey-dayo!" Musa exclaimed.

"You sure?" Aiyumi asked as she took it out of her hair for Musa to get a better look at it. It was quite delicate looking with it's filigree design and the fact that is was shaped like a simple hair pin made it look less like a key from this world. It had a gem with a kaleidoscope flicker to it, similar to the one Musa utilized to get here but it was also decorated with smaller green gems.

"But then, why didn't' I have to use it the first time?" Aiyumi asked.

"Dunno, I like to think because your awakening as a Pretty Cure was the key itself to activate the compact that time-dayo." Musa answered. Aiyumi nodded in approval and took out the compact. It's ravishing gems and peridot shimmer was definitely something to admire about this compact. But right now, she could still open it and for the moment, it appeared to be nothing more than a regular bedazzled compact mirror.

"So all it took, was this little compact to turn me into her?" Aiyumi asked as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror of the compact. Looking back, she felt like a completely different person when she transformed for into Cure Create. She had way more power, that was for sure and she was more courageous, more bold, more..inspirational.

"Well that, and the fact that you stood up for what you believed in. Aiyumi, you rose up in the name of art therefore you a Pretty Cure that is powered by, art-dayo."

"Hm, well that sure was, courageous of me, I guess.."Aiyumi thought aloud.

"If you don't help us, the world is going to be painted grey with no art or imagination and we of Genesis can't let that happen, so Aiyumi, will you become Pretty Cure and defeat Decadence?"

"Oh, I guess I didn't make myself clear huh? Well I didn't really say anything but to be fair, I did gestu-"

"Aiyumi-dayo!"

"Well, if I don't stand up again for what I believe in, this world is going to be wiped of all that I enjoy doing. There's absolutely no way I could let that happen. So yeah, I'll be Pretty Cure and you bet I'll knock those Mononites of Decadence into next week!" Aiyumi cried triumphantly.

Musa cheered, "Hooray-dayo! And one mor-"

Suddenly, the Marimba ringtone of Aiyumi's Aipod went off.

"Oh!" Aiyumi grabbed her Aipod and checked her Email. The email was from a group she was was apparently in called, 'Senior Drama' and the email was about a post in the group from the teacher.

"It's 9:15, Monday morning.." Aiyumi read aloud. She read the rest in her head, making small sighs as she read and arousing Musa's curiosity.

Aiyumi made one final sigh after reading and then turned off her Aipod.

"What was that-dayo?" Musa asked.

Aiyumi responded in an unsure tone, not knowing how to explain an Aipod to Musa "Well, uh, this is an Aipod, it connects me to WiFi, sadly no data plan and.."

"No, what were you reading?" Musa questioned.

"Oh, just this post by my Drama teacher on what I need on Monday for the dress-tech rehearsal for the play I'm in." Aiyumi responded.

"Wha-? But you just said you were going to be Pretty Cure-dayo!" Musa reminded.

"Yeah, but, I've been preparing for this play since, February, I can't just throw all my commitments out the window right now." Aiyumi claimed," Besides, I think I can juggle the both of them."

"Are you sure-dayo?" Musa asked helplessly.

"Musa, my own life and my promises to everyone comes first. And come on, I'm seventeen! I think by now I can organize what goes on in my life, well to an extent."

Musa simply sighed and thought for a bit as Aiyumi went onto her computer. She was only hoping that Aiyumi would take this seriously right now, sure this is only the beginning but if this keeps up, Decadence would be in power waiting to have a final battle with Aiyumi but she'd be too busy painting her nails. As Aiyumi scrolled down pages on her computer, Musa noticed she'd occasionally get goose bumps all over her arms. It was fairly warm in here, so it make no sense as to why she was receiving goose bumps. Perhaps it was from something she saw on her computer.

"_Rikuto's seen this post.."_ Aiyumi thought in bliss.

On Monday, Aiyumi stood in front of a small theater far from the school but close to her house. She was jittery, eager and definitely anxious as she waited for the rest of the people in her class to arrive. Hope began to flow from her in small spurts as she look up to the bright blue morning sky. It felt even more hopeful as it was supposed to rain today. Aiyumi then imagined Mother Nature dispelling the rain that was supposed to appear with the long-awaited sunshine, making the daydreamer smile to herself.

From a distance, she saw two figures appear in the distance, coming out of the coffee shop next door. It was two girls she recognized quickly, Kaede and Miyu. Kaede was a fellow actress a year older than her and Miyu was in charge of costumes for the play who was in Aiyumi's grade.

"Morning ladies!" Aiyumi called out, the two still a fair distance away from her.

"How long have you been out here?" Miyu asked as she ran a hand unconsciously through her chocolate brown hair.

"I'd say only two minutes." Aiyumi responded.

"It's a bit of a chilly morning." Kaede stated as she put a firm grip on the two cups of coffee in her hands.

"I guess.." Aiyumi responded," So the doors are still locked?"

"Yeah, they open at 8:30.." Miyu responded as she took a cup of coffee from Kaede's hand.

The three of them sat on a circular table as they waited patiently for the teachers and the rest of the students to arrive.

"What time is it now?" Kaede asked Miyu as the latter glanced at her watch.

"8:17.." Miyu responded.

Kaede simply groaned and before they knew, the two teachers arrived with cheerful smiles on their faces. Aiyumi took the gesture as something quite positive but a reminder from the teacher herself last week ran through Aiyumi's mind, warning her this was a facade.

"I hope you ladies haven't been here too long," The teacher, Ms. Matsuoka said as she approached them. The other teacher, a tall man with dark hair and fair skin, went towards the back entrance.

"Of course, better early than late," Ms. Matsuoka thought aloud," Cause if you were, I'd have no choice but to cut you from this production!"

"R-really?" Aiyumi asked shivers began to crawl down her spine.

"I'm only joking," Ms. Matsuoka responded, dispelling the frightening atmosphere she just created," Or was I?"

This was actually Aiyumi's first time taking Drama and she felt like a rookie, just like the students a year younger than her in this class. But by now, she knew she made the right choice sticking it out as she realized how much she loved acting and how fun the class was.

Aiyumi awkwardly chuckled as the four of them went inside. Aiyumi and Kaede sat on a couch in the large waiting room of the theater and Ms. Matsuoka went off into the actual theater. One by one, everyone started to show up and once everyone was gathered, they were lead into the changing rooms to get into costume. The girls' change room was somewhat small considering how many people would be in there and there were many mirrors all around. The lights were insanely bright but Aiyumi didn't appear to mind. She awkwardly found a place to insert herself in and began to change into costume. As she put on her costume, which genuinely wasn't anything more than an imitation of a British school uniform, she began to stare at the girls out of curiosity. Aiyumi blushed, feeling like a lecher as she noticed the other girls, proportions and then looked down at herself. She was already seventeen but she saw kids four years younger than her walk down the street with chests twice as large as hers.

"_I think I might be cursed with this flat chest for life.." _

"A-32.." Aiyumi muttered as she put on the rest of her costume.

"What's that-dayo?" Musa whispering as she peered her head out of Aiyumi's bag.

"Why did you follow me?!" Aiyumi yell-whispered as she crouched down and placed the bag on the ground.

"To make sure everything will be safe here and no one from Decadence shows up-dayo." Musa responded in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Don't you think I could handle it?" Aiyumi whispered," Look, please, I'm begging you, stay in the bag. But if you get let loose, then people are going to lose their minds at the sight of you."

Musa stayed silent for a couple of moments before responding," Understood-dayo."

Aiyumi, sighed as she zipped up thee most of the bag with a little part unzipped for Musa to breathe comfortably. Right now wasn't really the time to focus on Pretty Cure business. She forced herself to think of the play just to escape the thoughts of her alter-ego.

Her role wasn't necessarily the largest but actually one of the smallest really when she thought about it. But the play consisted of only eleven characters, so it wasn't like she only had one line.

Her character was a boy named Daiki (Daiko, in her case.) Daiko was this character who along with a lot of the other characters would be picked on by this one bully, but very early on in the play, the bully, Jurota, would lose power and would never be seen again for the rest of the play. Daiko wanted to be a doctor, that's all Daiko appeared to care about. If Daiko's lines weren't about something regarding the plot, it would be about Medical school and being a doctor. Aiyumi actually did want this part and it was either Daiko or Kumiko, the latter she wanted more but the role was given to Shinobu, another girl a year older than her, and another girl in her grade. The thing about this production was that every role was at least double-casted, with one role being played by four different people on different nights. It was nice in a way, because you could run lines with your fellow actors that shared your role when the character wasn't needed on scene.

Aiyumi shared the role of Daiko with two boys, Osamu and Nobuyuki. She didn't talk to them much but they're appeared to be nice people.

She walked out of the change room after fixing her hair into a ponytail with a claw clip in the back. She found the rest of her friends hanging out in front of the theater and decided to join them. She saw Rikuto in costume and couldn't help but blush. Rikuto was rewarded the part of Akira, a boy the gang of students leave in the woods for weeks who turns into this primitive man-beast that is found by Kumiko who's left to take care of Akira by the end of the play. Rikuto wore a destroyed uniform for his costume and a lot of his body was explicit.

"Hey Aiyumi," Rikuto said as he spun around seeing the petite girl.

"Hey," Aiyumi said, biting her lip to prevent herself from looking like a lovesick fool.

In a couple of moments, the class was lead into the theater and the teacher told them to sit with the actors that shared their role.

"Hey Aiyumi, sit with me!" Rikuto cried out as he situated himself between an empty row of chairs and the actor whom he shared his role with, Kyo.

Aiyumi was beet red and held back even more smiles as she waltzed over to him.  
"_Has God answered my unspoken prayers already?" _

Aiyumi was just in this state of pure bliss. Rikuto was asking her to sit beside him? He never gave her so much attention. She felt her heart throb as she sat herself beside him.

She tried to make small talk with him during the little time before the first run and to her, it went quite well.

Thankfully for the first run, it was Kyo who went on, leaving Aiyumi more time to spend with Rikuto.

The first run went on for not all that long actually. It was a bunch of technical processes like lighting cues and where to place said lights. Many lines were cut for the moment and for now it was just experimenting and deciding on what looked best.

There were so many lighting changes and each flicker of every color caught Aiyumi's eye and left her gazing with intent. It was a pretty spectrum that was more interesting than the actors themselves considering she had already watched each scene reenacted about, a thousand times now. Of course, when Kyo was on, she focused looking at him, just because Rikuto was, and she had to admit, Kyo was a bit attractive. Ok, very attractive, but she mentally struck out with him too many times.

Kyo appeared in the spotlight, but his hoodie was on, leaving his torn uniform shirt unseen by everyone.

"Kyo, take the hoodie off!" Rikuto yelled from beside Aiyumi. Kyo rolled his eyes and threw his hoodie to the side as he took it off and the run continued.

As the run took longer, Aiyumi noticed Rikuto turned hyper quickly. He was fidgeting with his fingers and then moved on to a section of his torn shirt, flapping it back and forth as he too began to sway back and forth.

"Rikuto..?" Aiyumi said unsurely.

"Yes?" Rikuto looked toward Aiyumi, his peridot eyes dazzled as he awaited a response.

Aiyumi honestly had no idea how to respond, she didn't want to sound rude or anything but she had his attention, but there was nothing she could actually say.

"Oh, yeah if I sit too long, I get kinda hyper, it's sorta like all this energy is being pent up inside me," Rikuto responded sheepishly.

Come to think of it, Rikuto was usually either standing or walking around. It was rare for him to sit unless a scene was going on, then he'd lean against the wall of the room.

Finally for the final run, it was Aiyumi's turn and did ever feel a mix of relief and panic as she got up from her chair at the theater and went backstage. Rikuto was also performing in this run too, as was Kai, Kaoru, and Asuko.

As Aiyumi stood backstage she noticed her friends she had now were made through Drama mostly. Of course, she knew Kai for two years now, but she would've never talked to Kaoru, or Shinobu, or even Rikuto if it wasn't for Drama.

After the dress tech, the actual school day was over and it began to pour.

"Great, now the rain comes.." A student, Jiro complained.

"Would you look at that, it's not a first-world problem from him.." Kai said wryly.

"It may as well be the apocalypse now." Kaoru jeered.

"Guys, I'm very sorry but..due to the fact that we're getting charged by the hour just for being in here, they won't let us stay until the rain clears up." Ms. Matsuoka said in a grim tone.

Various groans were heard and the actors went off into the rain, some dashing to the bus shed and others using their backpacks as umbrellas.

"You know, I think I could drive some people home." One of the stage managers, Arekkusu said, but unfortunately everyone was already shooed out of the theater.

"_Some kids are probably going to get soaked when they get to the bus stop across the street.." _Aiyumi thought as she watched the downpour. As she went outside, she opened up her umbrella that resided in her bag the entire time.

"But not me!" Aiyumi said victoriously as she pumped her free fist into the air. Just as she was about to walk gallantly, she saw a hesitant Rikuto walk out of the theater doors very briskly. He pursed his lips looking up at the sky and simply let out a small sigh.

"Getting a ride?" Aiyumi asked.

"Yeah, my dad will be here in five minutes but considering how hard the rain is falling.." Rikuto said, still looking up at the sky.

"Um," Aiyumi decided to stand beside Rikuto as he waited with her large leopard print umbrella sheltering the two of them.

Rikuto seemed genuinely confused, "Why are you..?"

"We can't let you catch a cold so close to showtime, Akira." Aiyumi winked.

For a moment, it appeared that Akira, blushed! Aiyumi didn't notice it, still not brave enough to engage in eye contact with Rikuto for a longer period of time. However, from inside Aiyumi's bag, Musa caught a glimpse of the fleeting blush.

Aiyumi went home after Rikuto's dad appeared and went over her lines vigorously. Of course, she did get them down, she knew them all, she was just simply convinced that this mattered more than anything right now. Plus she'd rather do this than the math homework she allegedly received. She looked at her clock, it was 6:30 but the sky outside made it appear to be only four. Aiyumi was quite pumped, her first show was tomorrow night with tonight being opening night. Playing her role this show was Osamu and she was slightly glad it was him rather than her.

She looked down at her Musekey she placed on her desk and simply stared down at it. That girl she became, that, Cure Create, it appeared her job was more important than anything to Musa and she understood why, but she knew now wasn't the time to put her life on hold. She was still average Aiyumi with normal responsibilities.

Later that night, just an hour before Aiyumi went to bed, she curiously checked her Aipod for any messages from the group.

"Hey Aiyumi," Musa began.

"Hm?" Aiyumi sounded as she turned on her Aipod.

"How come you're on this thing more than your phone?" Musa asked.

" 'Cause my phone's obsuleeeeete" Aiyumi said as she noticed she had a new email.

She checked the email and it was none other than a post from someone in the group. However it wasn't the teacher ,which was completely normal, but Osamu.

"Good evening fellow actors.." She read only that one sentence aloud. As she read on, she found that Osamu shamefully showed forty minutes late but managed to make it in time, with only ten minutes remaining until showtime. Ms. Matsuoka apparently said she would've kicked him out of the production but did not. And so, feeling so guilty about the whole thing, he decided to exert himself from both the rest of the play and the class.

Aiyumi's jaw dropped as she let her Aipod fall onto her bed.

In truth, this really was more her concern more than anyone else's, because now, she might have to take his place for his next show! (If he did have another show.) She zoomed to her computer, that only happened to be a few feet away and checked the group for a copy of the page that which night everyone would be performing.

It turns out, Osamu had a show tomorrow afternoon.

"Oh boy.." Aiyumi said.

"This doesn't sound too good." Musa said uneasily as she finished reading the email on Aiyumi's Aipod.

Aiyumi threw her hands into the air and raced downstairs.

"Aiyumiiiii!" Musa said in a soft tone so the others in the house wouldn't hear her. Unwillingly, Musa followed her downstairs and found the girl in the kitchen, throwing open cupboard doors and recklessly taking out things. After five minutes she obtained a jar of cappuccino coffee mix, a carton of milk, a jug of water and a bottle of caramel sauce.

"Aiyumi..?" Musa asked with concern in her tone.

"And lastly..!" Aiyumi exasperated as she climbed onto the counter, taking out a blender from the top shelf. Aiyumi then searched the kitchen for a plug outlet.

"Hmmm..." She sounded. Suddenly something by the corner of her eye captured her attention.

"Over there!" She cheered ecstatically.

She swiftly and not to mention, carelessly, inserted the blender's plug in and threw in all of the ingredients from before, except the water and coffee, which she stirred together until the two mostly blended together.

"Aiyumi, what are you doing-dayo?" Musa finally asked.

"I'm trying to make caramel coffee, I've never actually done this before, but I've seen the baristas at Sunbucks make fraps like this _all_ the time." Aiyumi responded as she turned on the blender.

"See, I love my coffee super sweet because I legit can't stand that bitter crap and caramel + coffee is like the best thing ever so I might as well give it a shot now you know?" Aiyumi rambled over the churning of the blender.

Once she stopped the blender, she grabbed a straw and began to taste-test.

"Ohmaigod! This is the best drink I've ever made!" Aiyumi exclaimed in what sounded like a near frantic voice.

"Aiyumi, isn't it a little too late for coffee?" Musa asked.

"Well, see, this is how I handle stress; by making things." Aiyumi explained," But yeah, you might be right on the 'too late for coffee thing.' "

So, Aiyumi dumped the rest of her coffee concoction into a cup that she placed into the fridge and went upstairs. She slept off the rest of her jittery feelings but before she went to sleep, she placed her costume and stage make-up in her bag, just in case.

That next morning, she woke up early and mellow, until she remembered what happened last night. She felt herself cringe but put all of her feelings of worry aside, as an actress she had to put those emotions aside and get her game face on.

Oh, but she already missed a whole English and Math class! Math, she could she could care less about at the moment as there was scheduled to be a substitute this week but English was a class she felt more responsible towards. Well whatever, she could just get the potential assignment to come from Kai.

When she arrived at school she placed her things in her locker and from the corner of her eye, spotted Ms. Matsuoka walking in her direction.

"Aiyumi, can I speak to you for a moment?" Ms. Matsuoka asked in a soft tone.

Aiyumi replied,"Uh, sure. If this is about Osamu, I heard about it last night and um.."

"Do you think you'd be able to do his show this afternoon?" Ms. Matsuoka finally inquired.

"I should be able to if I'd could be excused from my afternoon classes." Aiyumi responded.

"Alright, so which classes do you have?"

Aiyumi told her teacher she had English and Math, and then Ms. Matsuoka left to handle other things for the production. Aiyumi balled her fists, still a little stressed and now a bit nervous, after Ms. Matsuoka left. She knew this would happen and it wasn't like it was a, bad thing. However she did have another show tonight, then again, it wasn't like her role exerted that much energy from her, so what did she have to worry about?

After first period, Aiyumi was waiting outside Ms. Matsuoka's office along with Nobuyuki. It appeared now, it simply either her or Nobuyuki getting the show. It didn't entirely matter to her who got the show, just as long as Daiko/ Daiki was being played by one of them.

"You know, I feel terrible for Osamu," Aiyumi eventually said as the two waited beyond the door.

"Yeah, same here.." Nobuyuki commented," He didn't have to leave the class, let alone the rest of the production.."

Aiyumi couldn't do anything more but nod in agreement. She felt so sorry for Osamu but there was just nothing else to say on the subject.

Eventually, Ms. Matsuoka called the two in and they worked out the details, finally deciding Aiyumi would be preforming this afternoon. Nobuyuki didn't seem to mind thankfully and after that, Aiyumi gathered her things from her locker after second period and went to the theater.

When she arrived, she saw most of the actors, stage managers and costume designers already here. Being in the midst of this time before the show gave her this strange sense of excitement mixed with nervousness.

The feeling was dispelled briefly though as she walked into the dressing room.

"Aiyumi you're here!" Shinobu cried. She was already in costume and in full makeup, her lips being most prominent to Aiyumi as they were a bright vixen red. The more Aiyumi looked at Shinobu, the more she looked like a clown with her pale complexion and large red lips.

"Is Aiyumi here?" Miyu asked as she popped her head into the dressing room, she located Aiyumi in the room and let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank goodness."

It was admittedly kinda nice to have people explicitly be thankful for your presence, that's what Aiyumi thought as she got changed. The room was empty for a change so what happened a few moments later made her less frantic than she should've been.

"Musa, I'm pretty sure I told you last night to not stow away in my bag today." Aiyumi said as she pulled her shirt over her head.

"I know, but, Aiyumi I'm worried your not taking this job seriously! You're a champion of justice in the name of art and you need to start acting like it. Not just be acting in some school play-dayo." Musa complained.

"But in my defense, I am doing something related to art.." Aiyumi said as she bent backwards to face Musa, who was upside to the former now.

Musa flashed her a look waiting for a response.

"..Preforming arts!" Aiyumi finished as she still was backwards with her arms and one foot stuck out.

Musa moaned, "Aiyumi you're an-"

"-Idiot? Believe me, I'm aware." Aiyumi said as she buttoned up her cardigan." But it's ok. Trust me, I have this Pretty Cure stuff under control and I haven't seen robo-chick for days. Trust me, if anything happens, I'll leap to action without a second thought."

That put Musa as ease for a little while, but she still couldn't understand why this whole thing was more important to her than being a Pretty Cure. Musa just stopped thinking about the entire matter and felt to sleep in Aiyumi's bag.

As Aiyumi walked towards the backstage, she wondered something aloud in a soft tone.

"I wonder who's preforming today as Akira, Kyo or Rikuto?"

"Hey Aiyumi," A voice said from behind her, a voice that was oh so easy for her to recognize. She pursed her lips, once again refusing to display a full out smile as she turned to face them.

"Hey Riku..whoa." Aiyumi said as she looked at Rikuto who was already in full stage makeup, but his makeup was a lot more, bloody. He was in his distressed uniform once more and his makeup was smeared all over his body, to look like a mix of blood and mud.

"That's a _lot _of stage makeup, but I guess that's a-appropriate for your, character." Aiyumi commented in a rather flustered manner with an awkward laugh at the end.

"Yeah, I guess.. but on the up side, the fake blood tastes like mint!" Rikuto exclaimed cheerfully.

"Oh really?" Aiyumi asked in an intrigued tone, feeling her heart race as she discovered a way to find out for herself.

"Yeah, the bottle of it's in the guys' dressing room if you wanna try.." Rikuto said as he walked off towards the stage.

"Uh.." Aiyumi sounded. Did he not want her to lick fake blood off of him? Or did the idea just not show up in his innocent mind? Aiyumi sighed and just sat back as she waited for the play to begin. Nearby, precisely on the other side of the backstage was a boy with a baseball cap hiding his face. He lifted it up, revealing that it was Osamu. He wore a look of guilt and dismay on his face.

Meanwhile while the play was running, a certain group of people were assembled and were standing before their leader.

"Neodia, how could you?!" A voice boomed from a throne that was against the far wall of the dark room. Neodia wasn't too much startled but the shadowed man beside her flinched.

"You're the more competent of the two and this was all you could deliver? I oughta have you guillotined or decapitated or exiled!" The voice screamed.

"Well, excuse me for only observing what we're up against.." Neodia spoke up, her tone as robotic as ever.

"What?" The voice questioned.

"Last time was only to view how our threat functioned, how she was powered and I'm sure my predictions are correct." Neodia claimed.

"Predictions?" The male said under his breath.

"And so your prediction are...?" The voice asked.

"All her power comes from her compact." Neodia declared," Without, she can't transform and she won't be a threat anymore."

The woman in the throne thought long and hard. The man waited impatiently for her final decree while Neodia stood idly.

"Fine, we'll test your prediction today." The woman declared," Binario! You're going today and I know just where you can head-"

"Him? But you just claimed I'm the competent one." Neodia said as she threw a cold glare in Binario's direction. Binario walked up towards her, revealing his appearance.

He had silver hair just like her, wore goggles that made his eye colour unidentifiable and was a head taller than her. His skin was inhumanly pale and he wore plain grey pants and a long sleeve black shirt with neon numbers on it and a somewhat high collar.

"Nia, why do ya always have to see the worst in me?" Binario casually asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"Likely because you act too casually when you aren't attempting to remain serious, your mind's rarely work-orientated, not to mention you're only redeeming feature is your mathematical based powers."

"It's all in your head! Miss Nia.." Binario crooned as he waved his hand dismissevely.

"Binario, I'd rather you realize that I care for you neither in a platonic nor romantic sense." Neodia flatly stated.

"So.." Binario began to ponder on what she just said,"..That means you don't care about me, what happens to me, or what I do?"

She hissed,"Precisely."

"K sweet." He said as he kissed her forehead, not drawing out a reaction from Neodia whatsoever. She was to busy placing an object that looked like a chip carefully on the back of his shirt.

"Well, I'm off.." Binario said as he walked a few steps with Neodia watching him intently.

"4..3..2.."

Suddenly, Binario was momentarily sent alight by the explosive Neodia attached on his shirt. He screamed as Neodia smirked.

"...1."

"Smart-bombs, seriously Nia?!"

Both Aiyumi and Rikuto's part for the play was over now, Aiyumi's being over for quite a while now. The two of the were viewing the rest of the play from backstage, technically on the stage actually but obscured by the giant curtains.

"We should go over to that side of the stage, you know for when the play's over and we bow." Rikuto suggested.

"Sure.." Aiyumi responded, feeling near elated that Rikuto practically invited her and only her to the other side of the stage.

The two walked behind the curtains of the stage to get the other side and the entire time, Aiyumi was ogling Rikuto with pleasure. Just a little longer, she told herself, _then _in a week or two, she'll make a move, 'cause clearly he wouldn't. Or maybe he was planning to do it here, where it'd just be the two of them! Oh, how romantic and sweet!

Rikuto stopped walking for a moment and Aiyumi bumped into him.

"Ow~" She whispered," What's with the hold u-"

After peering over Rikuto's shoulder, she spotted Osamu watching the play with an unsettling look in his eye.

"Um, hey Osamu." Rikuto greeted with Aiyumi noticing he sounded a little shakily.

"Hey Rikuto, Dai- I mean Aiyumi." Osamu said, just as shaky as Rikuto.

"Were you here the entire time?" Aiyumi blurted out.

"..Uh yeah." He responded nervously, not sure if he should've told them this.

"So, uh, you took my place today?" Osamu asked, trying to sound casual, but unable to fool Rikuto and Aiyumi.

"Yeah, someone had to do it..:" Aiyumi confessed.

"I see.." Osamu said.

"I'm just gonna go.." Rikuto said awkwardly moving himself more downstage.

"Ah, wait for me!" Aiyumi yell-whispered as she followed after him.

"So, they just Aiyumi to take my place instead of just asking to come back? Why would they do that? Did they think there was no persuading me?" Osamu questioned in his head.

"Because..they were wrong, really wrong. Or..maybe they just don't want me back."

Nearby Binario floated the theater and looked at his surroundings skeptically.

"Is this really the place Monochrome decided to send me?" Binario asked in a doubtful tone.

"Whatever, let's see what we have here."

He flashed into the theater and sensed an Musekey just begging to be used. He felt this tingle run down his spine with how powerful it felt. Now to find where it was coming from. He located where it was exactly and found Osamu sulking to himself some more in the corner. Binario finally calculated that he was just without inspiration, which was just what he needed.

He formed an unusual orb within his hands that was covered with a binary pattern and let it hover to Osamu. Once the two met, the orb sucked Osamu dry of his Musekey and rendered one-hundred hopeless. He was still conscious, but now he was spiraling downwards in his own thoughts.

"Osamu doesn't look alright.." Rikuto pointed out.

Aiyumi looked towards Osamu but suddenly the tree center began to move and terrorize the audience.

"Make their numbers decrease, Vandalart!" Binario commanded.

"Vandalart!" The monsterfied tree roared.

"What the hell's that?!" Rikuto cried in disbelief.

"I have no clue, but you need to get out of here!" Aiyumi cried as she pushed him towards the exit.

"Wait, what about you?!" Rikuto while Aiyumi was still pushing him with little avail.

"I'll catch up! I'm gonna get Osamu and I'll get out of here, you just go!"

"Wait why can't I-?"

"GO!"

Rikuto finally did as told as ran off the stage and out from the emergency exit.

"Pretty Cure, where are you?" Binario asked as he looked around the stage.

"I'm better off transforming here." Aiyumi said as she drew out the Illumicase from her breast pocket and the Musekey from her hair.

"Pretty Cure, Imagine...go!" Aiyumi shouted as she opened the compact with her key, causing her to transform.

"Inspiring the artist that longs for a muse, Cure Create!" Create introduced.

She ran onto the stage and began to yell at Binario.

"Here? Of all places, Not to mention..right now?!" She shrieked.

"C'mon, a broken Musekey present plus me around? You do the math." Binario jeered.

Create gritted her teeth and began to fight the Vandalart by throwing punches at it first.

_"So that's the Pretty Cure.."_

After a plethora of punches, with about half of them delivered, Create took a moment to catch her breath while the Vandalart was still on the ground. She panted and as she collected herself, she heard someone murmuring to themselves from backstage.

"Nothing can't be done about this, it's a disaster! And there's no one else to blame but me, no wonder they didn't want me back!"

"Huh?" Create said as she looked to the direction of the voice. It from Osamu, he was curled up into a ball and apparently unaware of everything that was going on around him.

"He...he's conscious?" Create said doubt oozing from her voice.

"Yes-dayo!" Musa said as she ran onto the stage, and the longer he's without his key, the more he'll remaining like, with his spirit rotting-dayo."

Create's pupils shrunk with fear," I didn't know it'd get this bad.."  
"Oh believe it, and it'll only get worse from here!" Binario bellowed.

"You can just shut up!" Create spat viciously as she began to fight the Vandalart again.

"Pretty Cure, Pigment..Storm!" Create shouted as she spewed the blasts of paint from her palms. The tree simply devoured all the paint with the hole in it.

"That hole wasn't even hallowed!" Create shouted.

"But if you think about it, he sorta deserves all this..showing up late to a show he's in? Like have some decency! And then his teacher, from the 'good in her heart' chose to keep him but he pulled himself out. I mean technically speaking, I believe this makes him a fool.''

After filling the tree to the near brim with paint, Create snapped and began to tell off Binario.

"He's not a fool! Sure, he made a mistake, but he feels bad enough about it! It's not like he did this to ruin the show! And besides, I believe Ms. Matsuoka genuinely wanted to spare him, not because it'd look bad if she didn't but because Osamu's a great actor with potential! And, he was actually bold enough to try out for the lead and he didn't get it, but he was fine with and portrayed Daiki flawlessly! And that's why..."

Create threw one more Pigment Storm to the Vandalart, causing it to snap in half and to have paint splatter everywhere.

"..He'll never be a fool!"

Create began to heave in breaths and looked satisfied with this paint-splattered theater.

"Now to end this.."

"Pretty Cure.."

The atmosphere went green and was decorated with splatters of paint.

"..Inspiration...Sensation!" Create yelled and with that the Vandalart was cleansed and Osamu's Musekey returned to him, causing him to revert back to normal.

"Oh damn it! I forgot to test out Nia's prediction! They're going give me hell.." Binario whined.

Create was plainly puzzled with Binario's statement,"Nia..? Prediction? Uh...Mister-?"

"Eh? She doesn't know my name.." Binario said in shock.

"Well it's not like you ever mentioned it!" Create pointed out as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Well, fine! I am Binario! A member of Decadence, we'll meet again..Cure Create." Binario said as he disappeared.

"So, how's this place going to get cleaned of all the-?" Create said as she realized all the paint was gone.

"Where's the paint?" Create asked.

"It disappeared-dayo!" Musa exclaimed.

"You know what, I'll just ask questions later." Create declared.

Later that evening, after the night show, Osamu mustered up all his courage and asked Ms. Matsuoka if he could return to the class with an apology. Ms. Matsuoka accepted and he was back in Drama.

"Yay Osamu's back~!" Aiyumi cheered.

"Told ya she'd take you back." Rikuto stated.

"Yeah, I guess I was just overreacting but I'd honestly am glad I'm back, there's just nowhere else I'd rather be." Osamu confessed.


	3. Did we just split up?

Aiyumi sat restlessly on her bed, swishing from side to back as she thought indecisively. Her twin sized bed made her feel much younger than she was, like seven or eight. It was a cramped space for the average person her age but then again, she wasn't the average size for a person her age. She sighed as she was reminded that this bed was still a bit uncomfortable at times though, she was nearly as tall as it, resulting in her feet dangling off and in the air. It wasn't a feeling she liked all that much, it made her worry that she'd get dragged to hell like that. Plus the fact that her little brother was on a double while she was on twin didn't make things better. She adjusted herself sitting up and cross legged and glanced over to Musa who was fiddling around with Aiyumi's Illumicase. She didn't appear to be in a talky mood today which was kinda odd for her, but it didn't look like she was mad at Aiyumi, it appeared to be rather, she was lost in thought. It wasn't a look Aiyumi carried a particular liking to, being lost in thought. It was quite hard and unnerving trying to decipher what was one someone's mind and with a mind like hers, she figured it'd take too much effort or she'd over-think the other person's thoughts, making her too lost in thought.

Since Musa didn't appear to hate her or be upset, Aiyumi cautiously began to try and start a conversation between the two.

"So, this is what a Musekey looks like?" Aiyumi said as she laid down on her back again as she took the Musekey out of her bun. It really didn't look like a key and now, since the last time she transformed, her Musekey appearance altered slightly. It was still adorned with pearls, diamonds, and green gems but now the end of it was now pointed, but not pointy. It grew taller by about a couple of centimeters and on the side where it formed a heart, a heart was hallowed out from it.

"When activated yes-dayo." Musa responded in a neutral as she kept her gaze on Aiyumi's Illumicase.

"It keeps on looking less and less like a key you know," Aiyumi chuckled," If anything, now it looks like one those sour-keys that you eat. But like, a sour-key that's been sucked dry of it sugar and been reduced to a stiff jelly and the person's just been sucking on the end of it for twenty minutes straight. It makes me want eat it, gosh I'm really tempted to-"

"Aiyumi!" Musa finally shouted, her cheeks red and teeth gritted.

"That's the Musa I know!" Aiyumi exclaimed victoriously.

"Why can't you be more level-headed-dayo?!" Musa shouted over Aiyumi's laughter, surprising Aiyumi.

"Wait what?" Aiyumi asked.

"You're a solo Cure and that makes you Lead Cure so you really should be taking Pretty Cure a lot more seriously-dayo!" Musa shouted.

"Didn't I already say I was taking this seriously?" Aiyumi countered with anger creeping up in her voice.

"Not serious enough! Aiyumi, you know what happens when people go without their Musekeys, how could you just joke about eating yours-dayo?!" Musa questioned.

"You seemed upset," Aiyumi said with a new tone, a more caring one, as she lifted Musa up into her cupped hands.

"Aiyumi, I think you should be more concerned about Pretty Cure and what's going to happen to others without you rather than my day-to-day mood-dayo!" Musa advised in an irritated tone.

"Oh, does someone want a freshly made brownie from a certain someone's mother?" Aiyumi crooned as she rubbed a finger against Musa's cheek.

"Aiyumi!" Musa shouted," You're giving me a headache!"

"Keep this up and you're not gonna get a brownie~" Aiyumi crooned once more.

"I don't want a brownie-dayo!" Musa shouted as she jumped out of Aiyumi's cupped palms.

"Well, what do you want?" Aiyumi said as she folded her arms over her chest, reverting back to her near-angry tone.

Musa kept her mouth shut for a moment while Aiyumi tapped her foot against the floor.

"You know what I want-dayo? I want someone who takes their responsibilities seriously, someone who doesn't endanger others because they 'have prior-arranged' plans, someone who doesn't joke about the sacred Pretty Cure tools and..someone who isn't you-dayo!" Musa shouted as she ran out of Aiyumi's room. Aiyumi was shocked with that part and ran after Musa.

"I'm done with you-dayo!" Musa cried.

"So where are you gonna go?" Aiyumi shouted as she gained on Musa.

Musa reached an open window in the living room and stood the edge.

"Somewhere that isn't here-dayo!" Musa shouted as she jumped out. Aiyumi flailed a hand out in a final attempt to retrieve Musa but with no avail. Aiyumi groaned, really unsure of what to do. She had no idea a little argument like this would've spun out of control and ended in Musa abandoning her and saying she'd rather have someone else than her as Pretty Cure. But did she mean it? It didn't quite sound like that, Musa sounded a little, unsteady with each and every statement and it didn't appear to be that the words from the argument were the sole reason she ran off. It was definitely something unsaid by Musa that compelled her to leave, but what?

Aiyumi looked around the room and her current level of stress remained the same; Musa was somewhere out there but at least everyone in her house was out right now, so she didn't have to explain to anyone what just happened. Now she was stuck with only one question on her mind.

"Should I go after her to yell at me again or should I give her time alone?" Aiyumi asked aloud.

Musa fled with tears flying off her cheeks as she began to feel more and more guilty about her actions. She didn't mean to any of that, really! She was the more honest of the two, why did she say all that? She wasn't actually that mad at Aiyumi and the fact that the girl was an immature Cure, she just had to use some excuse to hide her actual distress. Telling Aiyumi her actual worries wasn't going to help anything but maybe now, it would reunite the two? Musa stopped running for a moment and looked back. She didn't even know where the house was! She was running for longer than she thought it seemed. As she came to think of it, Musa noticed she never went outside of the house beyond the front steps except when she stowed away in Aiyumi's bag where she couldn't see anything.

Musa groaned, she did manage to keep herself hidden from the eyes of the civilians which Aiyumi would've thanked her for but there nowhere for her to go.

"I want to go home-dayo.." Musa sobbed as she began to sit. All of sudden, the key Musa kept under her collar began to shimmer intensely and it floated in front of her.

"...dayo?" Was all she could manage, too entranced by the key's shimmer to string together any thoughts. The key glowed so brightly for a split-second that Musa was forced to shield her eyes and she was suddenly transported to a new terrain. She wasn't outside anymore, that was for sure, but it was very spacious and large for a creature her size. The walls around her were painted white and there were aisle of different art mediums all around her.

Musa took in a few deep breaths as she looked around. She seemed to have forgotten all of her other worries, being too bewildered by her surroundings to even think straight. There were people present because their attention all seemed to be latched onto other things like locating items or seeking assistance from other people in the area. It took Musa a few moments to figure out where she really was.

"..Is this an, art store?"

Because Aiyumi decided to not let herself sulk with Musa's disappearance, so she could give the fairy some alone time, she did all her other favorite things when she was home alone. She stood in her living room, her hands clinging to a barrel brush she hadn't used lately and her Aipod on the other side of the room lying on her mom's computer desk. She chuckled deviously as music began to play from it.

After a couple of seconds, she began to belt out the tune being played from the Aipod as she knew the song off by heart. She felt all girly inside, flirtatious actually, and she continued to sing her heart out. She walked around the coffee table on the room, as if pretending to be a popstar performing at a concerts as she sang the lyrics. Then, as the chorus began, she climbed onto the table and sang even louder while she tried to hit the high notes.

"_I should be wiser and realize that I've got~!" _

And she began to dance, on the table. The way she was dancing though, couldn't necessarily be defined as bad dancing, it was similar to when one was at a school dance and they swayed along with the beat to look cool. Of course, Aiyumi had a lot more hip action and more provocative moves in her 'number'. After the song was over, she crashed onto her couch and sighed.

"That was great," She exasperated heaving in a few breaths with the left side of her body dangling off the chair.

"I never get to do stuff like this because everyone's home when I am.." She mused with a tiny sigh. She retracted her legs towards her and held them.

"Not to mention everyone hates when I sing.."

"Well, Musa doesn't entirely mind it.."

Meanwhile, Musa began to explore her surroundings more and more, finding the store a little more appealing. This store reminded her of some place she been before, but she wasn't sure where. It wasn't Genesis, she knew that for sure, despite the fact that that was where all creation came from. This place didn't produce art, it only sold the tools to create it. They had canvases, easels, paint, paint-brush, markers, and so many other things. Somehow, it felt like more than an art store, not only did it specialize in paints for traditional artists, this place's inventory was so diverse it carried things like cookbooks and cookie cutters for culinary endeavors! It felt like here, anyone could be an artist! That was what Genesis used to be like anyways. As Musa looked up and down the aisles, she soon realized pretty much everything caught her eye.

"That ribbon is so lovely-dayo.." Musa said as she wound up the ribbon aisle looking at a roll of magenta ruffled ribbons.

"Oh!" Musa saw something that caught her eye and she ran towards it, no longer caring about the fact that people were present. She looked around the aisle in wonder. The aisle was filled with tiny gemstone and beautiful 3-D stickers for crafts and Musa took her time examining each and every one of them. It didn't take her long though to find one she would dub her favorite.

"Wow.." She said in awe of a sheet of 3-D stick-on silver hearts that had a smaller glittery heart in them and a rhinestone in the center.

"How do they make them so pretty-dayo?" She asked. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a large rack of colour, thin markers. She ran up to them to see if they were the brand of markers she thought they were.

"Kopik Ciao!" She yelled-whispered in delight. She looked at all the entrancing colours, recognizing a few of them from Aiyumi's set. She looked up top and saw a shade that had no colour to it and grinned.

"That's the one Aiyumi's been-!" Musa cried as she realized she may never see the art-powered Cure again.

"-..looking for."

The more Musa thought about it, the more it began to feel that this store was like a giant version of Aiyumi's room, with a whole lot more art supplies though. She sighed, feeling really homesick now and unsure of what to do at this point. She really couldn't go home and apologize, considering heaven knows what Aiyumi might do and she had no idea where she was. Well, at least she knew this was an art store. As she wallowed in her thoughts, she didn't realize someone was walking up towards her. Her heels clacking against the floor wasn't even enough to snap Musa back to her senses. But when the person was only an inch away from her and finally spoke, Musa snapped to attention.

"My oh my, are you lost?" The woman asked. Her voice was soft and gentle but innervingly unfazed by the fact that Musa was a living creature, which ultimately unsettled Musa.

"Is my cover blown-dayo?" Musa thought as she froze on spot while the woman continued to look at her. Musa was straight-up petrified and now all these thoughts of 'failed mission' began to pile up.

"Musa, you had one job! Find the Pretty Cure while not getting seen by regular civilians!" Musa screamed in her head. Now what was Mona going to think of her? How could she let a human find her? What was she going to do? She seemed nice for the moment but this all could've easily been a facade, a trick, just to reel Musa in. What if she was secretly an undercover scientist set on finding creatures like Musa and running tests on her? Aiyumi did warn her about people like them, of course Musa didn't entirely believe the girl because she was having one of her episodes that would be the result of minimal human interaction. Musa's eyes were still fixated on the woman, now at a complete loss and remembered how she got herself into this mess. All because she ran away from Aiyumi. Musa slumped, wishing Aiyumi was at her side so she could explain or at least make up explanation on how Musa could move and such.

"Are you lost? I won't hurt you..." The woman said.

Musa stayed silent and now hesitant on whether she should believe the woman or not.

"Don't trust me,huh?" The woman said as a frown appeared on her face,"Hm.."

"Aha! Would you like this?" The woman reached from her pocket and held out a stick-on heart similar to the one Musa saw but was instead a kaleidoscope of colours rather then silver.

Musa gazed at the heart in the woman's palm and caved in as she walked towards her.

"So do you trust me now?" The woman asked whilst giggling.

"Absolutely not-dayo!" Musa responded, realizing she really gave herself away now.

"How about we sit in the employees room? There aren't many people in there you know.." The woman said.

Musa sighed and went along with her.

_"It's hard to tell if things will get worse from here-dayo"_

At Aiyumi's house, Aiyumi continued to take advantage the fact that she was home alone but not as wildly as she did with her singing. Now, she had a tall cup of her home-made caramel coffee with whipped cream and caramel sauce on top of it placed on her wardrobe/side table with a box of strawberry Pocky opened. What was she doing? She was sitting upside down in the corner on the corner of her bed, which was also a corner of her room watching Vynes on her Aipod. She scrolled and scrolled every seven seconds to watch one after the other, her reaction to these videos usually being a small short-lived laugh, but eventually one got her chortling until her cheeks felt stuck in place.

"It's funny 'cause he takes the wig off!" She said between laughs as reached for the box of Pocky.

Suddenly, she heard something vibrate, causing her to sit her upright while still sitting upside down. She simply assumed it was her phone and lunged for it at the table by the foot of her bed. After stretching with all her might and picking up the phone, she realized it wasn't her phone that was vibrating.

"So if it wasn't my phone, and it wasn't this.." Aiyumi trailed off, puzzled by what could be vibrating. She looked around her room and on her computer desk, she saw her Illumicase rattling violently on her table. While the mystery seemed to have solved, Aiyumi was still unaware of how the Illumicase was vibrating like her phone. Was it because the compact could act like a phone and receiving messages? Or maybe it was vibrating for a much different reason? Oh god, what if there was an explosive attached to it and it was made to sound like a phone?

"And...I'm outta here!" Aiyumi said as she zoomed downstairs. After a couple more seconds of no explosions, Aiyumi finally decided to see why the Illumicase was vibrating.

She cautiously opening the compact and saw a woman with a dark long hair and blue eyes looking right at her. So it was like a phone call, or more like a video call..

"Can I help you...?" Aiyumi said in the unintentionally awkward tone possible.

"You must be Aiyumi." The woman said.

Aiyumi felt herself relax as she realized who she was talking to. Duh, this was the Queen of Genesis, um, Lisa? Close, Aiyumi thought to herself.

"_Uh...Oh, Mona!" _

Usually Aiyumi was fairly good with names, maybe it was because the name was English.

"Yeah, that's me, Aiyumi by day Cure Create by dismay.." Aiyumi chuckled awkwardly.

"_What the heck do I say to her?_" Aiyumi asked in her head.

"How many encounters have you had with Decadence?" Mona abruptly asked in an urgent tone.

"Only two, one with Neodia and the other with Binario." Aiyumi responded uneasily.

It seemed like Mona's intention was to talk with Musa but she seemed unaware the fairy wasn't present. Aiyumi began to feel guilty for not telling the Queen first that Musa wasn't in and finally confessed.

"Look, Musa and I kinda got into an argument and she ran off and I don't know where she is. I know this probably isn't making the best first impression but I'm going to go look for her right away!"

Mona quietly chuckled into her hand, confusing Aiyumi, who was expecting a lecture or something.

"I didn't realize this would happen so quickly. See, for the last couple of times I talked to her, she said she felt guilty that she could only find the one Cure and when I told her there was only destined to be one, she didn't want to believe me. She doesn't want you to fight alone because she's worried you'll either be not strong enough to defeat Decadence or that you'll abandon your Pretty Cure duties and give up." Mona explained.

"So that must've been why she fled.." Aiyumi said as she pursed her lips," And that's probably why she was so on edge today.."

"But she should know better!"Aiyumi blurted out," I'm plenty strong and I'll beat any sucker from Decadence into next week! And I won't abandon my duties, I swear! Art is on the line here, I can't quit knowing that!"

"Then maybe you should tell her that." Mona suggested with a warm smile.

"Yeah if I knew where she was,ugh!" Aiyumi groaned as she threw a comb on her desk against her closet door.

"I think I can help you with that," Mona stated.

"It's not that I think she's weak-dayo.." Mona explained," I'm just scared they'll become too strong for her to handle.." She was sitting in the employee's room in a bench beside the woman, Kotori, whom she had just told the entire story of Pretty Cure to. Kotori was willing to believe this and she felt pity for Musa and also surprised Musa was capable of feeling human emotions. Kotori looked at the fairy with a concerned look in her maroon eyes and was thinking hard.

_"Poor thing, she's so sad and..such a strange being. I still can't believe she's this living, breathing creature and, she seems delirious. Going on about this Pretty Cure girl and the world of Art in danger. If the Pretty Cure did exist, it would've been all over the news! And art isn't made by this magical land in another world, what is she thinking? It's quite the miserable sight.."_

_"...They don't give me enough hours here, they never have, and me and my fiancee are both barely scraping by. University sucked us dry of most of our money and it's not like our jobs wages are cutting it.. But, if he showed Musa to everyone at the lab, he could be paid pretty big bucks to examine and see how she's built. We could be rich! We could quit our jobs! I can't do this job anymore..even though I adore art, working in this place isn't worth it.."_

"Hey, Musa.. why don't you come home with me?" Kotori stiffly asked, while trying to sound welcoming.

"So that's why we're here." Aiyumi declared. She managed to gather all her friends under this fairly cloudy Sunday afternoon to find Musa inside what she discovered to be GenjuGo, the largest art-store in the city thanks to Mona.

"You had to come here yesterday, to get paint for your _Graphics _project, dropped your 'stow-away' stuffed animal here, and now we're here to help you find it?" Kai reiterated.

"Yes." Aiyumi said as she placed her hands on her hips and nodded to Kai.

"Well, first off why couldn't you get paint from the dollar store? It's pretty cheap there.." Kaoru pointed out.

"Yeah, I was wondering that too.." Shinobu said as twirled her hair around her fingers.

"Because~! The paint here is really vibrant in colour and the shades are so very diverse and they have aisles of it stretched across the store and it's such a rewarding sight!" Aiyumi replied in a dreamy voice.

"And..if you help, I'll buy something from the Party Planet store across the street.." Aiyumi bribed on the spot.

"I want a paddle-ball." Kai declared.

"I'll just have something sparkly and purple," Shinobu said in a near uninterested tone as she glanced over to her nails.

"Yeah, that's if you help." Aiyumi reminded.

"Ok, we'll all help," Kaoru declared.

"Then into Genju-Go we go!" Aiyumi exclaimed.

"This place is ginormo!" Shinobu gawked as she looked around the giant store in shock.

"You couldn't tell from outside?" Kaoru asked.

"Small-town girls are the cutest." Aiyumi said quietly to Kai, who nodded in agreement. Aiyumi looked around the store, it hadn't exactly changed since the last time she came, which was nearly over a year ago to buy Manga pens. She didn't get to come here so often, due to school and that her mom would refused to bus with her because it was on the other side of town. Aiyumi inhaled the smell of the store she enjoyed so much and commanded the group to disperse in different directions. Shinobu took the east part, Kaoru the west, Kai the south, and Aiyumi the north.

"Aiyumi's doll..?" Kaoru called out while whispering, not expecting a response whatsoever. She looked down aisles and reminded herself of what Aiyumi said the doll looked like.

"_Sorta like a white teddy bear but with a bigger head with teal pigtails, dark pink eyes and a rainbow collar. Not too hard, should be able to stick out like a sore thumb. But, than again, this is an art store.." _

"Dolly~" Shinobu said while looking at the same stick-on hearts Musa was looking at. She found them interesting but then found the same set in purple and fell in love with those.

Kai didn't have much to get distracted by here, though this was subject to change as he was a guy who was able to become side-tracked by many things. He kept on looking for the sake of his to-be-bought paddle ball whilst wishing he had an ice capp in hand. He wondered if Aiyumi considered the chance of a little kid picking the stuffed doll up and taking it away with them or maybe someone gave it to customer service so that if the owner lost it they could check there. He also considered taking a brief break and purchasing an ice capp at the coffee shop next door.

Aiyumi grew desperate as she continued to search vigorously for Musa, and a bit upset as this was her fault.

_"Why couldn't I've just understood her? Or better yet, why couldn't she just tell me? What could've been the worst that could happen?" _

Meanwhile, at Decadence, Binario and Neodia were in a room together with Neodia pacing around, deluding herself into thought and Binario lazing around watching Vynes on a chrome-coloured laptop before him. He held in laughs for Neodia's sake but the next one he saw, he just couldn't help it.

"It's funny 'cause he takes the wig off!" He cackled as he closed the laptop to avoid seeing it another time as the video would loop.

"Could you please stop?" Neodia said, trying so hard to sound neutral but it wasn't hard to hear the frustration rising in her voice.

"Hey, it's closed isn't it?" Binario said as he folded his arms and placed them behind his head. Neodia shot a menacing look to the unfazed Binario, who knew deep down she wasn't as hateful and robotic as she made herself seem.

"I'm heading off to the human world, to find a Musekey tainted with discourage." Neodia hissed as she was about to set off.

"Should I wait up?" Binario jeered, only frustrating Neodia even more. She left without another word.

Binario said as reopened his laptop,"Good luck."

"Oh Musa, where are you?!" Aiyumi screamed frantically, finally reaching her breaking point and already imagining all the awful scenarios that involved being unable to find Musa. As she rummaged through the scrapbook section, a scary thought appeared in her head.

"What if they already got to her?" Aiyumi thought.

"This was a perfect opportunity, get the ally when strayed from the magical girl..ugh, how could I let this happen?! I'm such a stupid, incompetent, freaking moron!" Aiyumi shouted between gritted teeth as she sat down into an empty bottom shelf in the aisle. She could feel tears forming in her eyes and did everything she could to make sure they'd remain unseen and not falling down her cheeks. If only Mona was able to track down the fairy's exact location, then it would've made things a lot easier, but the queen had other issues on hand, that much Aiyumi could understand. She gulped down and sighed, there was actually only one thing she had left that she could do. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, extremely unwilling to do this in a public place, but she had no choice.

"_Please, help me find-"_

"But I don't want to go home with you-dayo!" An oh so familiar voice protested from not too far away. Aiyumi eyes snapped open and she quietly walked out from the shelf and peered towards of the aisle. Aiyumi saw Musa shoved into the bag of a woman who appeared to be in late twenties and walking away with her!

"But my shift's over.." The woman pouted," Besides..what would you if I left without you?"

"I'd-"

"Excuse me, but.." Aiyumi interrupted as she sauntered over to the two," I was here the other day and I dropped my humanoid baby animal simulator and seemed to have found it for me! So if I could just.."

"So you're the girl this creature's been babbling about!" Kotori snapped.

"Yes, I guess so. Now would just be kind enough to give her back?" Aiyumi said as her impatience got the best of her and forced her to try and retrieve Musa from Kotori's bag.

"I don't think so, you don't deserve such an intelligent creature, this thing's going to bring me to fortune! Now, scram!" Kotori hissed as she ripped Aiyumi away from the bag.

Neodia was standing on one of the aisle's shelves witnessing the whole dispute with little interest, as usual. What did bring bring her attention though was a shattering Musekey within Kotori.

"Fascinating." Neodia declared with a tiny smirk. She then snapped her fingers and removed Kotori's Musekey from within her. It appeared in her palm and instead of searching for something to make a Vandalart out of, she simply watched the argument ensue.

"What do you want with her anyway?!" Aiyumi shrieked, only now causing a few people to stare at her.

"I...haven't the slightest notion. What was I thinking? How could I achieve fortune? How could I escape this nightmare of a job?" Kotori scoffed as she appeared near lifeless.

"Whoa..I didn't mean to take it that far, look I just want her back.." Aiyumi stated," So maybe if you could just rethink this over.."

"-Aiyumi, her Musekey's gone-dayo!" Musa whispered. Aiyumi's eyes widened and she took another look at Kotori. She wasn't as aggressive as before and she didn't seem to care whether or not Musa was taken away from her.

"And with a Musekey missing means.." Aiyumi trailed off briskly in a worried voice.

"Vandalart!" She heard being bellowed from behind her. Aiyumi whipped out her Illumicase and stood her ground as she faced the Easel Vandalart.

"Aiyumi!" She then heard a familiar voice call for her.

"Uh-oh.." Aiyumi said as she spun around seeing Kai run towards her. She never felt so unprepared for something in her life, just how was she supposed shoo Kai away without him taking her out of the store.

"Hey.." She began awkwardly with a forced laugh.

"Don't 'hey' me, come on we gotta get out of here!" Kai demanded just as he was about to take Aiyumi's arm.

"I left my bag in here! Please, can I just get super quickly?" Aiyumi pleaded as she drew back her hand.

"Are you insane? You were lucky enough to have escaped from that time at the Art gallery, we need to get out now." Kai insisted.

Aiyumi raised her eyebrows, surprised that he knew she didn't evacuate with everyone else. Aiyumi took a deep breath and tried one last time.

"Kai, please let me get my bag and I'll be out of here before you know it." Aiyumi begged.

Kai's eyes darted back and forth from Aiyumi and the Vandalart. He sighed loudly and obnoxiously, signaling just the response Aiyumi wanted.

"Just make sure you aren't seen by that..thing." Kai advised as he dashed out of the store.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Aiyumi slurred together before she turned to face the Vandalart.

She held her Illumicase up high and shouted,

"Pretty Cure, Imagine-"

"Vandalart, take the compact!" Neodia commanded. The Vandalart did just as told and swooped down to snatch Aiyumi's Illumicase right out of her hands.

"Hey wait a second!" Aiyumi shouted in dismay as she tried to get the compact back while it was still at hand's reach. But the Vandalart was too fast and now had given to Neodia. Aiyumi gritted her teeth, blaming herself in her head as she never imagined this would happen. Aiyumi moaned in pure frustration, with little to no ideas on how to reclaim the compact.

"Aiyumi!" Musa said as she jumped out of Kotori's purse, whom was now curled up into a ball on the ground.

"Use your Musekey, it'll attract it back-dayo!" Musa whispered.

Aiyumi took the Musekey and pointed it towards the Illumicase in Neodia's grasp.

"This better work.." Aiyumi said under her breath.

Neodia could see what she was doing as was about to command the Vandalart to take the Musekey from her but she could already feel the Illumicase slipping out of her grip. She clung to it, doing everything in her power to keep it with her but eventually, the Illumicase repelled from her and returned to Aiyumi.

"If I get interrupted a third time, I swear-"

"Aiyumi-dayo!" Musa shouted as she snapped Aiyumi back to her senses.

"Pretty Cure Imagine..GO!" She finally shouted as a glimmering spectrum of lights flickered from the compact and obscured Aiyumi from everyone's vision.

"Inspiring the artist that longs for a muse, Cure Create!" Create announced.

Somehow, Create still felt the guilt from before creep up in her. She didn't expect this to happen, she was hoping she could ignore Aiyumi's concerns and focus on Cure Create's duties. But she took the hard way in realizing it didn't work like that since deep down, they were the same person and they shared the same feelings.

She made a 'hm' sound as her eyes darted from Musa to the Vandalart. She knew too well that if she were to even try and fight now, she just wouldn't have the mindset to do it, not with her and Musa still drifted apart. After she finalized her decision, she looked Musa straight in the eye and opened her mouth to speak.

"Of all places, you choose to converse now? How inept." Neodia remarked,"Vandalart, obliterate the fairy."

"What?" Create choked out in a near fearful tone as Musa was wobbling uneasily in position.

The Vandalart formed this orb of inky black energy and charged it towards Musa.

"Musa!" Create screamed at the top of her lungs. She ran at full speed towards the fairy as she shielded her as her body skidded across the floor with her arms tightly around Musa and the orb just above their heads. The orb dissipated and Create heaved in giant breaths along with her shaking from head to toe in discomposure.

"Create..are you alright?" Musa asked in complete astonishment.

"Yeah, just a couple of skinned body parts, no thanks to the damn waxy floor, heheh..." Create responded awkwardly as she could feel her heart racing. This whole body trembling actually rarely happened during the previous times she fought, maybe the reason was because she could've just lost someone so important had she of failed.

"Musa, I'm so sorry for not acting like I take this whole thing seriously. I do, believe me, I do! I just can't stand the thought of everyone's spirits decaying because I might fail them. It's just, too much to bear sometimes.." Create said as she feel tears in her eyes again.

"And, I know you'd rather there were two of me so you wouldn't have to just rely on me and me only, but I'll make up for the other Cure!"

"What?" Musa asked.

"I'll put in twice the work, I'll train super hard so I have just as much power as two Cures, no ten Cures-no! A hundred Cures, anything for you to feel safe with me as Pretty Cure."

"Aiyumi.." Musa trailed off in awe.

"But despite everything, you're still just one person." Neodia pointed out.

"Yeah, I know." Create spat," But I'd rather be on my own, that way no one else gets dragged into this. I'll fight not only for art, but for them!"

"But your still on your own. With no one to even acknowledge you're saving their insignificant muses."

"I may be alone here, but I have their support.." Create declared.  
"Their?" Neodia repeated.

"My friends, my family, Musa, everyone in Genesis, no matter what happens..I'll always have them by my side! No matter what!" Create shouted.

"This discussion is over, Vandalart..you know what to." Neodia commanded once more.

"Vandalart!" It roared once more.

"Now, here's where the fun begins.." Create said as she rolled up her sleeve. The Vandalart came charging towards her and she charged towards it, balling her fists tighter and tighter as she got closer. Create threw a boatload of punches to the Vandalart and the Vandalart did the same.

Create ran up under the Vandalart and kicked it from underneath, causing the Vandalart to sky-rocket into the ceiling. Just before it fell, Create felt a tingling sensation in her fingertips.

"Is this a..new power?" Create asked stared down at her hands. She shook her head and let her instincts take over.

"Pretty Cure..Artistic Zion!" Create cried as a mix of chalky smoke and and splashes of paint erupted from her fingertips. The chalky smoke from her fingers scattered all over the area acting as a smokescreen.

"What did I just do?" Create groaned.

"Cure Create, you just did your first multimedia attack!" Musa cheered.

"Multimedia..attack?" Create repeated in bewilderment.

Through the smoke, Create was able to spot the Vandalart, though it appeared the Vandalart didn't discover her just yet. A smirk arose from Create and she landed a kick a kick plus an attack into the Vandalart.

"Pretty Cure..Pigment Storm!" Create shouted as she kicked the Vandalart. The Vandalart was defeated and now all that was left was purifying it.

"Pretty Cure, Inspiration..Sensation!" She cried as the atmosphere turned green in mid-sentence.

The Vandalart was purified, leaving only a detailed drawing of an easel as a remnant. Neodia vanished without being noticed while Kotori's

Musekey returned to her and now all that was left was to see if Kotori was alright. But before that, Create felt the desperate need to tell Musa something.

"I know I'm still one person and I'm not gonna lie, sometimes that leaves a lot of pressure on me and I bet you can feel that pressure. So, for the of us to feel less pressured, would it help if I were to tell my friends?" Create asked.

"About Pretty Cure-dayo?" Musa asked.

"Usually I can be vague and secretive, so the thought of it is weird for me too. But I just feel like they could understand, like this could benefit us, so...please." Create insisted.

Musa thought long and very hard and she adverted her gaze from Create's anticipating stare.

"If you think this'll benefit us-dayo.." Musa responded.

"Yay! Thanks so much, I promise this'll be good for us!" Create cheered.

Eventually, Kotori came to in front of an unimpressed Aiyumi and Musa.

"First of all.." Aiyumi said with Musa in her crossed," You _can't _have her. Now, see I'm sorry for the inconvenience either of us have caused but-"

"Save it. I know she yours. But, I only wanted to have her discovered for all the money I could've gotten!" Kotori explained.

"Uh, that doesn't help your case." Aiyumi commented.

"You don't know what it's like. You're just a teenager who has an overestimated concept of the real world. But try and think of what it's like for a woman fresh out of university, stuck at a job that barely gives me any hours and not to mention I have to deal with a practically deadbeat fiancee. You couldn't possibly understand and I can't make you understand."

Aiyumi felt awkward and at a loss of words. She couldn't leave this woman all bitter here. As a Pretty Cure, she kinda had to leave the victim in higher spirits but this time, it was easier said than done. She could try and relate to her, but then that might've come off as her minimizing Kotori's problem.

"Well, uh..it may seem like rock bottom from here, but anyone can get out of rock bottom with a little bit of hope." Aiyumi started stiffly," Besides, the world's full of opportunities and I don't think exploiting my, 'pet' here will be your only one."

Aiyumi's preachy words seemed like a cry on deaf ears but then Musa spoke up.

"You know, you really did and you still do seem like a nice person-dayo." Musa stated, finally getting Kotori's attention.

"You just seem to be corrupt by all around you. But you know what? Even the most successful people fall hard, and they can learn from their mistakes. While I'm not saying you failed, I'm just saying you have the power to work your end up from here-dayo." Musa explained.

"This isn't the end, if you think you can do better and that you deserve better, then put all your efforts on that. This is just one obstacle, and there may be more, but don't think of them as obstacles, think a them as small goals," Aiyumi added, sounding uncertain in her own words.

"I think you girls may be on to something, listen I apologize for all the trouble I've caused for you two, and I'll keep her a secret, I'll even act like today never happened." Kotori declared.

"I guess that's fine." Aiyumi said sounding rather relieved.

As the two of them walked out of the store, a certain realization hit Aiyumi hard. She froze in mid-step and let out a sharp moan.

"Now I have to get those guys stuff from Party Planet!" She remembered.

Musa had this look of bewilderment on her face but simply giggled at Aiyumi shortly after.

"Hey it's not funny, those weirdos aren't even here!" Aiyumi said over Musa's laughter as she unwillingly walked to Party Planet across the parking lot. Musa began to think about Aiyumi as the two (well, just Aiyumi) walked across the parking lot. What was thinking? How could she replace a girl like Aiyumi? She had a strong, big heart and she was also artistically inclined. It'd be hard finding another girl like to be Pretty Cure, Musa was lucky to discover and befriend Aiyumi! Friends, that must've been what they were by now.


	4. The bonfire that made my life

"Eh? So you don't actually like Kai-dayo?" Musa whispered in utter disbelief as Aiyumi adjusted her collar and shortly after jumping into her skirt.

"No, never have, never will." Aiyumi whispered back, hoping to dispel all the notions of romance between the two to Musa," He's my favourite guy friend. Generally, he's a loud idiot who fun to beat on and stuff but I can't see myself being in a relationship with him anymore."

Musa was nodding to signal that she understood until Aiyumi said 'Anymore'.

"What? Anymore-dayo?!" Musa cried and whispered.

"For awhile, I had this nagging feeling he liked me back and it got out of control two years ago. Someone started a rumor that we were dating only 'cause we hung out, but that was the most we did. No physical interaction, no hand holding, no hugs, yet everyone believed we were an idea. I did my very best to tell them all they were wrong but they still speculated some sorta 'secret romance'. Thankfully it died down but after another year people were trying to hook us up again. It was ridiculous. And to this day, I still can't confirm whether or not Kai had a crush on me." Aiyumi explained quietly.

It was early morning and because Aiyumi couldn't see herself falling back asleep at six am, she just decided to start her day early and converse with Musa. She kept her curtains closed, knowing that if she didn't the rising sun would creep out from under her door and agitate everyone else who still slept. The two kept themselves quiet enough so they wouldn't wake up the rest of the house's occupants, but loud enough so that they could hear each other without repeating themselves.

"So then why don't you find out if he likes you or not-dayo?" Musa questioned.

"It's not the right time, you know? Because it's an, important memento of my high-school experience, I wanna find out on the last day of school in my final year, and that's not until next year." Aiyumi replied.

"Doesn't the curiosity ever just overtake you?" Musa asked.

"I have other things to worry about, besides, him and Asuko are so friendly sometimes it makes me forget that people ever speculated us to be dating." Aiyumi explained.

"...But, even Asuko can get on his nerves. That's why every now and then..I think we're soul mates." Aiyumi stated.

"What?! But you said you didn't like him-dayo!" Musa nearly shouted, causing Aiyumi to put a finger on the fairy's mouth.

"Who ever said soul mates were lovers?" Aiyumi pointed out.

"I think the name kinda gives it away," Musa thought aloud.

"Well I don't think soul mates technically have to _be in _love." Aiyumi said," I think, they can just interact and connect with each other so greatly it doesn't matter who's around when they're together."

"Wow, a true envisionist~" Musa praised.

"Plus, he was too good of a friend for me to go out with. I didn't wanna take the chance of us breaking up and distancing from each other, he's too special for that." Aiyumi added.

Aiyumi yawned and glanced over to her clock. It wasn't even seven and it appear the girls had a little bit more time to kill. Aiyumi turned on her Aipod to check if she received any emails over night. Nothing new was found in her email so she just unconsciously tapped the events icon. Today was the sixteenth and Friday. Under the calendar on the event page she brought up, she noticed there was an event marked under it. 'Senior Drama Bonfire' was what it was called and it took another moment for Aiyumi to realize that was today. Aiyumi looked at the event with little interest. It was going to be held at a girl in Aiyumi's Drama class, Hanami's, backyard. While, it did sound a bit like fun things like how was she was going to get there, how late would she be able to stay before her parents killed her, weighed the fun of it down. Maybe it would've been more fun and interesting if a certain someone in her class was confirmed to go. Otherwise, she wouldn't have a good time and she knew it.

"A bonfire-dayo?" Musa read aloud over Aiyumi's shoulder.

"Yeah, it's for the people who were in the play sans the teachers but I don't think I'll be going." Aiyumi stated.

"Why not-dayo?" Musa asked.

"I dunno, the last couple of parties I've been to this year haven't been all that great. I guess they were fun, but my mind kept getting hung up on other stuff for me to enjoy myself. It's just not as fun as back in middle school." Aiyumi explained.

Musa frowned and didn't say anything after that. This wasn't entirely the reaction of a party Musa was expecting from Aiyumi, she always appeared to be a girl who enjoyed and took up any chance of social gatherings, _any _social gathering. But, it appeared Musa thought wrong.

"I'm going to head downstairs and get breakfast. So I'll be off to school soon." Aiyumi declared.

"Should I come with you just in case anyone from Decadence appears-dayo?" Musa casually asked.

"No, I think I got 'em under control for now." Aiyumi responded, waving a hand in dismissal

Later, when Aiyumi was at school, she had what felt to be bigger problems than Decadence. What might that problem have been?

"Aimi!" A boy with ginger hair called out in Aiyumi's direction. Aiyumi took a deep breath and stopped drawing for a moment to look him straight in the eye.

"These first-year nicknames are like the _plague_." Aiyumi thought.

"Yes Rui?" Aiyumi finally asked.

"Could you pass me those scissors?" He asked as he chin-pointed to a pair of scissors that resided near Aiyumi's left arm. She took the scissors and gave them to him making as little to no conversation as possible between those few moments. As much as she loved this class, the people here were unbearable and surprisingly, Rui was the least of her worries generally. Shinobu sat next to Aiyumi and was painting her nails purple as usual. Aiyumi would mentally cringe at Shinobu constantly painting them with such a cheap polish. It would flake off within hours and the only thing she'd do about it was paint over them. Why couldn't she go out and buy a clear top coat? Oh yeah that's right, she wasn't interested in doing something like that.

"So Aiyumi, you going to the bonfire tonight?" Shinobu asked without taking her eyes off her nail-painting.

"I'm not sure." Aiyumi responded.

"Bonfire?" Rui asked as he lit up by the sound of the word.

"It's for Drama kids only." Shinobu hissed, attempting to dispel any idea that he could come.

"I don't entirely care 'cause I have a doctor appointment today. But Aiyumi you should go." Rui stated.

Aiyumi sighed,'' I don't know, it might not be as interesting as I hope."

"Aiyumi, it's a bonfire, and besides, what if Rikuto goes?" Rui asked, making Aiyumi feel as if he was mentally elbow-nudging her. He was prone to getting on her nerves but she hadn't yet lost it with him. He wasn't necessarily special, he was really more of a nuisance.

"We'll see." Aiyumi declared. The thought of whether or not she should go to the party invaded her thoughts even more during class. It'd be really nice to go to the party with Rikuto there, maybe she could even get some alone time with him. Aiyumi pursed her lips to prevent herself from laughing aloud. When her wishful thinking went into overdrive, there was no stopping her but thankfully she wasn't at home where her imagination would run wild.

In Drama class, Aiyumi found out Rikuto was in fact going. She felt her heart flutter as she heard the news and now knew she had to go to that bonfire. She somehow managed to obtain a ride with Kai and all that was left for the school day to be over. Aiyumi couldn't help but find herself a bit pitiful though. The only reason she was going to the bonfire was for Rikuto. She did however desperately try to convince herself otherwise.

"No, I'm going to have a good time with the people I actually enjoy being around. The people who may not necessarily understand me, but the people who can entertain and let me have fun." Aiyumi thought.

During lunch, Aiyumi caught Matsuri sitting by herself eating her lunch.

"Matsuri, are you here alone?" Aiyumi asked.

"No, my friend's just in the bathroom and I guess I just look like I'm alone.." Matsuri responded sheepishly.

"Well, why don't I keep you company until she comes back?" Aiyumi beamed.

"Sure, I guess.." Matsuri replied with a faint red tint to her cheeks.

"Are you going to the bonfire?" Aiyumi asked.

"No, I don't have a ride plus I have other things to do tonight, like catch up on Lila's Rosy Outlook." Matsuri explained.

"You watch Lila's Rosy Outlook? Me too!" Aiyumi explained as a grin instantly appeared on her face," Oh, who's your favourite character? Mine's Lila."

"Definitely Azalea, she's all hyper and nutty plus she's really pretty.." Matsuri answered, visibly more cheerful like Aiyumi. As the two kept talking for another few minutes, Aiyumi felt herself liking Matsuri even more. The two had already previously bonded over J-Pop singers, and Aiyumi had to admit, it was hard to find people who listened to J-Pop and actually knew their stuff. After Matsuri's friend came back, Aiyumi left the two in high spirits.

"Matsuri's so great! It's so fun talking to her about stuff like this. It's not easy finding fellow J-Pop fans who actually do their research. Plus whenever she has food she makes in cooking class, she always gives me some!" Aiyumi thought delightedly. The rest of the day went by quickly, really quickly and as she got home she proceeded to choose what accessories to wear with her outfit. She was most likely going to wear the same outfit she wore today and now, all she had to do was find something nice that went with her outfit and other things.

"Guess who's going to a bonfire~?" Aiyumi said in her dreamiest tone as she went through her jewelry box with Musa resting on her bed.

"But I thought you said you weren't going to go-dayo," Musa said with a small frown. It's not like she wanted Aiyumi to stay at home, she would've just rather she knew prior to now.

"Something just changed my mind I guess." Aiyumi said with a slight shrug," Besides, what else is a high-school girl supposed to do on a Friday night? I should at least try and live it up a bit before times runs out. And then comes the real world.."

"If I were to stay in tonight, I think I'd be missing out on quite a bit," Aiyumi said as she continued to rummage through her jewelry box," I won't miss much here when I do head to the bonfire. All I've been doing on Friday nights as of recently is watch anime, draw, and go to bed early." She managed to find a pair of silver bow shaped earrings in her jewelry box and decided to wear those.

"Now, what else should I wear to spice up my look?" Aiyumi said in a tone of sing-song. She looked down to her bare feet and squirmed her mouth to one side of her face as ideas popped into her head. She went over to her wardrobe and fished out a pair of black socks that went to her shins embroidered in flowers.

"These will do." Aiyumi decided as she pulled them on.

"Maybe I should come with you-dayo." Musa suggested," Just in case someone from Decadence shows up."

"Do what you please, but there's no way they could appear..the place is in the middle of nowhere!" Aiyumi said, now running a lipstick test on her forearm.

Finally she was ready and she found herself waiting for a while at the staircase of her house near the front door. She was more eager than impatient right now and constantly kept telling herself to keep her expectations low. The most that would happen today between her and Rikuto was an conversation consisting of two lines, probably sounding like,

_"Enjoying the bonfire?"_

_"Yeah."_

And that would be it, and Aiyumi would be left fawning over that one moment repeatedly without end in her head for the rest of the weekend. Aiyumi's eyes widened as she shut her mouth with hands, though she never said any of this aloud.

"What am I doing?! I'm supposed to be excited for a night with my favourite people on my favourite class!" Aiyumi scolded herself. She took a breath and placed her hand over her forehead.

"At least this beats sitting at home drawing." Aiyumi sighed as she looked down at her phone. Musa decided not to come with Aiyumi as the girl said she would be in the middle of nowhere but urged Aiyumi to bring her Illumicase and Musekey with her. That much, she did. She thought hopelessly about how this night would go down and she tried shoving all those thoughts of her and Rikuto to the back of her mind, though it didn't do much good. Thankfully though, before her thoughts spawned out of control, Kai appeared at her door to pick her up.

"Ready?" Kai asked plainly.

"Ready." Aiyumi responded as she stepped out of her house and in front of him.

The two got into Kai's mom's car and Aiyumi found a fellow classmate, Kana, in the back seat beside her. The ride seemed to go on forever but it was nice as the only sounds heard were Kai and his mom conversing as if they were best friends and the winds being blown into their ears. If felt as if they were just driving into the sunset, which felt nice and soon, they entered an unfamiliar part of city. That had to mean they were nearby as Hanami stated she practically lived in Narnia. The houses here were noticeably nicer, likely because they were built recently or within the last five years and they also almost looked entirely the same. It actually made them all wonder how Hanami was able to identify which house was her's.

"Though a hassle, we somehow managed to get here," Kai's mom guffawed.

Kana took a deep breath and smelt a certain something in the air," It seems the bonfire's started."

"We'll see you at ten, ok mom?" Kai asked.

"Yup, later guys!" Kai's mom confirmed as she drove out of the driveway.

The trio ran the doorbell and waited shortly outside on Hanami's doorstep. They door swung open, revealing Hanami and small grey dog by her side.

"Come on in guys!" Hanami said as she led the three of them into the backyard. In the backyard, the rest of the class, minus a generous amount of others, were already here. Shinobu and Kaoru were present and sitting on lawn chairs, like everyone else. They were all circled around a fire and some had blankets over them since the night was already becoming chilly. Rikuto was also already here and just seeing him made Aiyumi's heart skip a beat.

Aiyumi took a good look at her surroundings, just to take everything in. The backyard was nice and large, with a table of food, specifically chips and sodas placed right before the porch. In the corner of the backyard, there was also a trampoline that apparently Hanami said it was ok to go on, but only two could go on at a time.

Aiyumi snickered to herself, there was no way _anything _could go wrong, Pretty Cure wise at least. They weren't even around any art, so how was Decadence supposed to strike? She sat on an almost isolated lawn chair and brought out her blanket. It was really soft and hot pink with polka-dots. She tucked it onto her legs and slumped into her chair. Unfortunately, she picked the spot where all the bonfire smoke was flying towards her, making her eyes water greatly. As she closed her eyes to blink out tears, she heard someone sit down on the chair beside her. She opened them once more to see who it was and to her delight, it was Rikuto who decided to sit himself between her and another classmate, Souma.

"Hey guys," Aiyumi giggled awkwardly.

"Hey Aiyumi!" Souma greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey," Rikuto greeted as he managed as drop-dead smile to Aiyumi, well they were drop-dead to her. Rikuto and Souma were sharing as bag of chips and they both took a handful every few minutes.

"Uh, can I have a chip?" Aiyumi asked as her question was reduced to a whisper with each word.

Rikuto somehow heard her and handed her the bag. She gingerly took two chips and began to nibble on them shyly.

"Hmm, salt and vinegar.." Aiyumi observed," Thankfully, they aren't cheezies.."

Rikuto went to get a drink and someone else came and his spot.

"Souma I thought you going to save me seat!" Rikuto complained.

"Sorry man, me and Daichi were coming to an agreement on something." Souma explained.

"I'll only give the five bucks if you put it to use." Daichi declared. While the two attempted to reach an agreement, Rikuto sat on the grass without a single care.

An idea appeared in Aiyumi's head and she blushed at the thought. But she couldn't let this night go to waste.

"Um, Rikuto.." Aiyumi said shakily as she lightly tapped his shoulder. The brunette spun toward her and waited for a moment for her to say something.

"Wanna, share the seat with me?" Aiyumi asked as she could feel herself crimsoning.

"Ok." Rikuto plainly responded as he tried to situate himself onto the chair with Aiyumi.

"You sure we're gonna fit?" Rikuto asked, sounding a bit nervous.

"Yeah, I'm quite small anyways.." Aiyumi replied with a shy smile. The chair was now a bit snug but Aiyumi really didn't care, she was sharing a chair with Rikuto! And not to mention his arm was around her shoulder. Though Rikuto wasn't paying attention, Aiyumi was beet red and felt majorly victorious. But somehow, after a few moments, this wasn't enough. Shinobu caught gaze of Aiyumi beet red and winked her.

"Trampoline." Shinobu mouthed.

"Are you kidding me?" Aiyumi mouthed back.

Shinobu half-grinned and looked over to the trampoline. Aiyumi stopped 'talking' with her and looked over to Rikuto's arm. It was as peachy coloured as usual and his hands were surprisingly large. It didn't really match Rikuto's youthful appearance, but it wasn't anything Aiyumi felt the need to get worked up over. Suddenly, Rikuto stood up from the lawn chair as something caught his eye.

"Are we allowed to go on the trampoline?" Rikuto asked as he noticed Kana bouncing up and down on it alone.

"Yeah, two at a time only." Hanami answered as she took large sips from a red cup in her hands.

Rikuto raced towards the trampoline, took his shoes and proceeded to bounce with Kana. Kana simply smiled sweetly to him with her blue eyes twinkling and orange locks flying everywhere.

Aiyumi gritted her teeth as she watched the two jump together.

"I ship Kana and Rikuto," Kai said as he observed the two on the trampoline.

"I think I have another ship in mind.." Shinobu commented as she looked towards Aiyumi.

Aiyumi reddened once more and dashed towards Shinobu.

"There's a certain something I want to tell Rikuto but I'm not sure if I should!" Aiyumi whispered frantically into Shinobu's ear.

"You should, a lot of us think he might react positively.." Shinobu encouraged in a mellow voice.

"Should I really?!" Aiyumi yell-whispered, her body beginning to shake anxiously.

"Absolutely, besides he's jumping on that trampoline all by himself," Shinobu pointed out.

"Wait what?" Aiyumi asked, forcing her to spin around finding Rikuto doing just what Shinobu said. Aiyumi's heart was pounding, but she knew all to well she needed to take this chance and the only thing stopping her right now was herself.

She took a deep breath and went onto to the trampoline with him.

"Hello again," Aiyumi said with a full grin on her face.

"Hey Aiyumi." Rikuto said as he executed an above decent, but not exemplarily flip on the trampoline. Aiyumi awkwardly hopped up and down cautiously as she gawked at Rikuto continuously doing flips.

"You're good at that.." Aiyumi remarked.

"Yeah, I have a trampoline at my cottage.." Rikuto beamed.

They chattered about a few pointless things such as the school year almost being over and other topics. Soon the two became tired and just sat on the trampoline.

Aiyumi was so anxious now. She thought of her first time talking with Rikuto; they were grouped together for a scene in Drama and the first thing they spoke about was foot-long sandwiches (they were extras in the scene).The scene was supposed to be of the abuse of power and apparently, the group took it too far.

She didn't realize she had a thing for Rikuto just yet, and when auditions for the play rolled around, Rikuto was rewarded the role of Akira and everyone in the class began to notice him. Then the Rikuto fan club was established, with Aiyumi as the unofficial president, but Rikuto never took the fan-club seriously, neither did the rest of the class, not even Aiyumi did too much. And shockingly after that, no one realized that Aiyumi began to crush on Rikuto. At the full day rehearsal for the play, it was the first time Aiyumi heard Rikuto say her name. Later, like two weeks later, came the dress-tech where Rikuto asked Aiyumi for her to sit with him and now tonight.

"Hey, Aiyumi, can I tell you something?" Rikuto asked.

"Uh yeah, sure!" Aiyumi answered as she immensely reddened.

"_Oh my god, is he going to me out? This never happens, I'm always asking the guy out! Only ugly guys ask me out!"_

"This is my first..party" Rikuto confessed, putting emphasis on the word party.

"What, your first ever party? You've never been to a party?" Aiyumi questioned in a frantic buzz. Obviously though, it wasn't because of the fact he allegedly never been to a party.

"No, not like that! Well, not like...high-school party." Rikuto restated in an attempt to call her down for reasons he was entirely sure of. Aiyumi made an 'oh' sound and gave herself a single moment to think of a response.

"Well, this my, third I believe." Aiyumi responded. Rikuto seemed somewhat impressed but Aiyumi didn't quite understand why. She was a year older than him, of course she'll already been exposed to this kind of party!

"And um, Souma's got a crush on someone at this party.." Rikuto began.

"_If it's me I swear to god I-"_

"It's Kaede.." Rikuto finished, his eyes on Souma and Kaede kicking a soccer ball back and forth to each other. Souma seemed to be really enjoying himself and Kaede seemed to addled mentally to grasp what was going on.

"Oh.." Aiyumi sounded once more. She couldn't really see the two of them as a couple, there was a two-year gap and in high school..that's not the always the cutest thing.

"It's his first high school party too." Rikuto disclosed," But you can't tell anyone ok?"

Aiyumi nodded her head in an alert fashion and felt her heart pound in her ears once more.

While they were on the topic on crushes, Aiyumi felt the need to snap up this chance.

"I wonder if anyone else if in the class has a crush on someone here.." Aiyumi thought aloud, desperately trying to sound casual.

"Well, those two are dating, I think.." Rikuto said, pointing out two students in their class, both older than Aiyumi and Rikuto.

"Now that you mention it, they are making it quite obvious.." Aiyumi observed the boy and girl.

"You telling me all this stuff makes me feel the need to tell you something..just to even things out." Aiyumi stated as she smiled in a near flirtatious way to Rikuto.

"Well then tell me something." Rikuto said.

"Um, what to say.." Aiyumi teased," Well, there's someone I like at the bonfire.."

"Do tell.."

"I, maybe I shouldn't"

"C'mon, you're the one who wanted to even things out.."

Aiyumi turned away from Rikuto,"Ok, they're nearby, as a matter of fact they're sitting on this trampoline with me.." Aiyumi confided. She bit her lip, satisfied she finally told him the truth, though indirectly.

When she turned to face Rikuto he was staring very intently at her, in a way she never did see him stare at her. She turned away beet red and as she turned back to him again he was still looking at her. This process was repeated at least one more time and Rikuto just laid down on the trampoline. Aiyumi followed suit and laid down beside him. In complete silence the two were sitting and looking up at the sky. Aiyumi sat up for a moment to do something she felt a strong need to do.

"Don't draw back or be confused when I do this, k?" Aiyumi warned. Rikuto nodded and she lowered down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. She laid down beside him again. Rikuto's hand was held out and Aiyumi took the chance to intertwine her fingers with his. He didn't take his hand back or anything and the two just sat with their fingers laced together.

At Decadence, Neodia and Binario were gathered at the throne of Monochrome and they were watching Aiyumi and Rikuto looking at the sky with their fingers still tangled together.

"Look at this wretched sight between these two. Utter, complete sweet, pure love. Limerence really." Monochrome spat.

"Isn't that girl...the Pretty Cure?" Neodia and Binario thought.

Apparently Monochrome wasn't aware of this.

"Love, a tacky excuse for things like children and, families!" Monochrome ranted.

"There probably isn't even a definition for love in the dictionary that isn't biased or sappy!" Monochrome thought aloud," Neodia!"

Neodia snapped to attention," Yes?"

"What definition would you give for love?" Monochrome questioned.

Neodia began briskly," Nothing more than a chemical reaction in the brain caused by impulses of lust."

Monochrome nodded in agreement while Binario displayed a neutral expression but he in truth wasn't satisfied with her response.

"_Really Nia, that's all you think it could be?"_

"Quite intellectual, as expected of you, Neodia. What about you Binario?!" Monochrome screamed.

Binario made up something on the spot," Statistically, an illogical excuse a majority of the people of this planet have deemed their 'purpose in life'."

"Illogical, I like the sound of that.." Monochrome said," Binario, you're going today and you're targeting that party!"

Binario seemed a little surprised while Neodia seemed annoyed.

''Don't disappoint me, Binario." Monochrome crooned before he vanished.

So Rikuto and Aiyumi eventually retreated back to the bonfire and Rikuto consumed an inhuman amount of, 'juice' and became just as mentally addled as Kaede. As Aiyumi watched Rikuto fraternize with everyone at the bonfire and make a fool of himself, Aiyumi inflated her cheeks in frustration.

"By this time tomorrow, he'll have completely forgotten everything that happened.." Aiyumi whined to herself," Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut."

She looked at her surroundings once more just to contrast with earlier tonight. Now, a few individuals were a little less friendly and more promiscuous. Somehow, she really wasn't surprised. Perhaps watching too many teen dramas as a kid prepared her for scenes like this to pop up.

She suddenly then heard Rikuto shouting to someone 'What is it?', making her curious to know what was going on.

"See well, I did something..bold." Souma explained vaguely.

"Elab'rate." Rikuto urged in a voice that sounded both mellow and addled.

"Ok, I, you see, I um, alright I..I kissed Miyu." Souma confided to Rikuto. Aiyumi seemed rather surprised while Rikuto apparently failed to see a problem in this.

"But don't you like Kae-" Rikuto began but was cut off when Souma put a hand over his mouth.

"Yes! But see, just when I was going to confess to her, I..I chickened out and I told her I liked Miyu instead, ugh I feel so stupid!" Souma groaned.

"So then what happened after you told Kaede you liked Miyu?" Rikuto asked.

"She brought me over to Miyu and we talked a bit, get to know each other, you know? She seemed a bit tipsy but not as bad as Kaede and then next thing you know.."

"K, then lemme me know one more thing," Rikuto said as he lowered his voice to a whisper. Souma leaned down and Rikuto whispered into his ear.

"It was, ok you could say. It was only a smooch really but it's getting to me.." Souma replied.

From above, Binario hovered and witnessed all the events taking place as this party.

"Tacky's an understatement." Binario thought aloud as he narrowed his eyes.

"And to make things worse, there doesn't even seem to be a single Musekey tainted by discourage. Just my luck.."

"Maybe I should just look somewhere else.." Binario sighed, but suddenly, he felt this glint that could've lead to a shattered Musekey with the proper stimulation.

He then conjured up another orb with a binary motif but this time, it was larger in size and had two times more binary printing than the last time.

"I only have a couple of these ones, but it's not like it'd result in a wasted effort.." Binario said as he controlled it with his finger and pointed it to Souma.

"What the-?" Were Souma's last words before the orb extracted his Musekey. It was visibly in perfect shape, but once it got in contact with the orb, it began to receive scratches and in bad condition.

Binario made a V-sign and fused the Musekey to the trampoline.

"Make their numbers decrease, Vandalart!" Binario cried.

"Vandalart!" The monsterfied trampoline bellowed. Everyone ran from Hanami's backyard and during the fray, Hanami could be heard screaming, 'What the hell happened to my trampoline?"

"Here, what? But how could they-?" Aiyumi stammered. She then found Souma moping in the corner, unaware of what was going on.

"C'mon, he couldn't of been that upset over losing Kaede." Aiyumi scoffed. She groaned and took out her Illumicase unwillingly.

"Pretty Cure..Imagine...GO!" Aiyumi cried in an reluctant tone as the spectrum of lights began to flash.

"Inspiring the artist that longs for a muse, Cure Create!" Create announced.

"I knew this was a bad place to execute the process.." Binario sighed. He lowered down to the ground and caught Create's attention.

"You!" Create yelled.

"Me." Binario said unenthusiastically as he spied a lawn chair in decent condition. He snapped his fingers and the lawn chair now had a binary print just like orb and resembled a box.

"Much better," Binario said as he hopped onto the box.

Create threw punches until she knocked the Vandalart down briefly, she really wasn't in the mood for this. After another sucker punch that sent him flying, Create groaned and pointed a finger at Binario.

"You're ruining my night!" She declared while the Vandalart was wedged into Hanami's fence. It attempted to wiggle it's way free, but with no avail for the time being.

"Take it easy!" Binario raising his hands up in front of himself defensively," Are teenagers always this dramatic? If so, that kid's better off without his Musekey.."

"Yes, they're generally dramatic! And you wanna you know why? Our lives are filled with drama, whether we like it or not! Whether it be boyfriends, girlfriends, peer pressure, driving, it's just a bunch of changes we're not ready to deal with! Souma was just..caught up in the peer pressure I guess, just like.."

The Vandalart broke free and Create charged up towards it, not longer in the mood to lecture Binario.

"Maybe I could do one of those multi-media attacks again!" Create hypothesized," But I never found out how it worked!"

From the corner of the house, a certain someone was observing this entire battle with rather glazed look in his eye.

"She's really..something..." Rikuto exhaled as he watched Cure Create fight," But why did she come? To protect us?"

"Pretty Cure...Pigment Storm!" Create cried as splatters of paint were launched from her hands. The Vandalart was still stomping slowly towards her and soon cornered her.

Scared, Create screamed out of terror and her fingers were going through that tingly sensation she had last time.

"Pretty Cure..Artistic Zion!" Create shouted. This time, clay shot from her palms and latched around the Vandalart's legs and a crocheted net appeared from nowhere and fell over the Vandalart.

"I can't even knit." Create said with a half-smirk.

"Are you kidding me, is that the best you got? Get up!" Binario demanded.

The Vandalart tried and tried and eventually admitted defeat, disappointing Binario greatly.

Binario groaned loudly and Cure Create got into her fighting stance.

"Pretty Cure..." Create began as the atmosphere turned green.

"..Inspiration Sensation!"

The Vandalart was purified, with a detailed drawing of the trampoline left and Binario disappeared.

"Why did I run my mouth to him about all of those things..?" Create asked.

"...Was I venting out on him?"

The bonfire resumed and while some people were still in terror about what just happened, Hanami tried to calm everyone down and restore the relaxed atmosphere, though she too was still a little freaked out.

Rikuto was back to the way he was before and was currently wolfing down a bottle of something (Aiyumi couldn't tell what it was because of the dim-lighting)

Aiyumi felt like she overstayed her visit here and kinda wanted to go home now. Thankfully, soon enough she got what she wanted and Kai's mother appeared to pick up, her, Kai and Kana.

The trip home was a quiet one, well if you didn't count Kai and his mom's endless chatter. Aiyumi looked out the window, thinking about those tiny fleeting moments she shared with Rikuto. Those secrets he told her, that secret she told him, their fingers entwined. She felt goose bumps on her arms as she continued to think about the events of this night. Aiyumi was brought home and was interrogated a plethora of questions by Musa.

"Did Decadence show up-dayo?" Musa asked.

"Yep, I handled them though." Aiyumi responded, her mind preoccupied on other things.

"But you said they wouldn't show up!" After that, Aiyumi proceeded to tune out Musa. She thought about how Rikuto stared at her for that long period of time, his 'we'll talk later' when they retreated back to the bonfire. The thought of how she nearly vented her problems to Binario also crossed her mind too.

_"..I would've never thought I'd do something like that.."_

She then thought of her kissing Rikuto's forehead. She blushed and smiled to herself.

_"Or that.."_


	5. The response & those who won't listen

Aiyumi had little to no recollection of this long weekend, except for Friday of course, if that counted. The long weekend for her was spent looming over those scenes between her and Rikuto playing back over and over again in her mind, it was truly the only thing she could find herself doing have the time. She continued to block the memory of her ranting all of her problems to Binario and eventually got around to planning a day to schedule her friends to come over for her to tell them about her being a Pretty Cure.

"I still don't understand why they have to come tomorrow.." Aiyumi said that Monday night. Stroking her hair with a plastic brush, Musa sat on Aiyumi's bed and watched her comb her hair with little interest.

"The sooner, the better-dayo.." Musa defended. Aiyumi stopped combing her hair and groaned.

"I've never had someone at my place on a Tuesday though,"Aiyumi thought aloud," And tomorrow's supposed to be the day I found out if Rikuto's feels the same way."

"So?" Musa questioned.

"Tomorrow will be a day of drastic emotions either way because of his response." Aiyumi responded.

"Exactly how-dayo?" Musa asked.

"Well, in the best-case scenario in which he says yes, I'll be this bundle of joy and nothing too much would be affected..but then there's the more realistic 'He declines' scenario. If that were to happen.."

Aiyumi just sighed and went to combing her hair.

"Aiyumi, I noticed something about you-dayo..." Musa began.

"Hm?" Aiyumi sounded while she continued to comb her hair.

"You sigh quite a bit." Musa pointed out. Aiyumi raised her eyebrows. While in truth, she did agree with Musa, she also couldn't help but be surprised Musa noticed.

"What about it?" Aiyumi asked as she kept her gaze away from Musa.

"People usually sigh when their sad, and considering you sigh a lot..Is there something wrong-dayo?" Musa asked with concern.

"Nah, my life's just boring.." Aiyumi said as she fell onto her bed.

"Boring-dayo?" Musa scoffed," You're a legendary warrior, how could you think your life could possibly be boring?"

"Not that part!" Aiyumi said between giggles," I mean, my high-school life. I feel so uninterested in what goes on around me at school, like there's no reason..it's like I'm only there in for the classes that matter to me the most, and then I'm just..just, there."

Musa had a small frown on her face, definitely not liking how Aiyumi sounded about this. It did not sound healthy to her and that could lead to a broken Musekey, which could never happen to a Pretty Cure, but still.

"But..all that's gonna change when you tell your friends about Pretty Cure!" Musa exclaimed with a sound of doubt on her voice.

"Hopefully." Aiyumi shrugged as she rolled to her side,"But wait.."

"What?" Musa asked. Aiyumi stretched and took her time before responding to Musa. She eventually sat up and crossed her legs as she faced the fairy from Genesis.

"I still have no clue as to how everything just magically reverts to normal condition after I'm done Pretty Curing it up at the scene of a mishap." Aiyumi pointed out.

"Huh?' Was all Musa could say.

"You know, like at the theater with Osamu's Musekey, the art gallery, the art store, even Hanami's backyard for goodness' sake and that place was trashed!" Aiyumi listed.

Musa thought and thought, making Aiyumi anticipate her answer even more. Musa was aware of Aiyumi's currently endless attention but didn't entirely have the words to explain it. Finally, she figured out something to say.

"Magic."

Aiyumi felt her left twitch greatly as if she was ready to explode.

"Every one of those terrain's were destroyed and wrecked and all you can think of them being fixed by is magic?!" Aiyumi shouted, strangling Musa.

"Relax-dayo!" Musa cried as Aiyumi put the fairy down.

Aiyumi calmed down after a moment and placed Musa on to the bed again.

"I'm not sure what there is to it, I like to assume it's because the damage wasn't caused by real attacks, but really..magic." Musa explained.

"That makes sense..to an extent." Aiyumi stated with another small sigh," But then..that's makes about as much sense as your existence and these.."

Aiyumi held up the Illumicase,

"..Powers."

"What's that supposed to mean-dayo?" Musa asked in a near grumpy voice.

"You know what? Never mind.." Aiyumi declared as she began to think more on the Pretty Cure's source of power topic.

"I guess it was because I stood up for what I believed in and that led to a physical manifestation of my, courage?" Aiyumi thought hazily. Aiyumi then thought about all those scenarios involving Rikuto again.

"Part of me hopes he did forget all about Friday night, so then I wouldn't have to risk being heartbroken if he says no.."

"Somehow, that seems so wrong of me to think, and yet..it's probably my best-case scenario.."

The next morning Aiyumi woke up with the first thing on her mind being Rikuto. She smiled to herself and kicked her bed in joy.

"Today's the day, today's the day!" Aiyumi cheered whilst waking up Musa. Musa woke up in a rather groggy fashion as she lazily rubbed her eyes and let out a monstrous yawn. She looked over to the pepped up Aiyumi. Musa smiled to herself, being pleased to see Aiyumi in her average cheerful, go-getter spirit.

Aiyumi then panicked," What am I going to wear?!"

"Your uniform-dayo?" Musa suggested.

Aiyumi snapped her fingers and placed her right hand on her hip.

"Good idea, but, I need something to spice this image of a girl who could be..taken.." Aiyumi squealed and jumped up and down at the thought of a relationship with Rikuto.

"I know! I'll use.." Aiyumi ran to her computer desk and rummaged through her desk drawer while throwing random objects behind her. She then held up a roll of navy blue ruffled ribbon.

"I'll just cut a few sections of this off and wear this in the place of my regular bow! Ohmigosh, and I can wear them in my hair too! He would never be able to resist me!"

"Isn't that against school regulations?" Musa asked with a slight giggle.

"Does this face look like it cares about school regulations?" Aiyumi scoffed," Besides, I think it's worth it to bend some rules if it'd up my chances to be in a relationship again."

"But don't you think it'd be shallow of Rikuto to say yes because of your outfit today? Not to mention a little..weird-dayo?" Musa pointed out.

"At this point, I wouldn't mind if he liked me just because I was a year older than him." Aiyumi smirked.

Musa furrowed her brows, having this faint, sinking feeling she'd seen this part of Aiyumi before,

"I don't think that's healthy-dayo."

"Don't worry, I'm just messing with ya." Aiyumi giggled, somewhat to convince Musa but not herself.

As Aiyumi began to section off parts of her hair to put into ribbons, Musa then thought of something that gave her a reason be against Aiyumi in a relationship.

"What if her being in a relationship with Rikuto puts him in danger of Decadence?"

"Ju-just because today's the day you find out his response doesn't mean you get to abandon your duties as Pretty Cure and dismiss your prior arrangements, such as today's meeting."

"Oh relax, I won't let Riku and my Pretty Cure stuff get mixed up with each other. Plus the meeting's at _my _house, so I think we're safe from me ditching the meeting if that's what you're worried about. And I texted everyone yesterday like you said and they can all make it so we're good."

"Aiyumi, you're really calm about all of this. It's really becoming quite unnerving-dayo." Musa stated.

"You don't think I'm unnerved? I barely tell my friends anything regarding secrets, so if you think this whole idea of me telling them I'm Pretty Cure hasn't blown my mind, then you my friend are out of _your _mind."

"Just..don't let your emotions control your actions today-dayo." Musa advised.

Aiyumi rolled her eyes and grabbed her things before taking off. Musa then took off the plastered naive,ignorant expression from her face and replaced it with a look of grave concern.

That morning before first period began, Aiyumi was already feeling her heart race within her chest. She couldn't entirely understand why though, but she assumed it was because she was now reunited with some of the people from the bonfire. Not many knew what happened between the two of them, but a few suspected there was something going on. But then again, a lot went on that night.

She sat by herself against her locker, surfing the web on her near obsolete phone acting as if she had a dull long weekend. She acted like today was any other school morning and nobody seemed to notice the bright smile appearing out of nowhere that would flash on her face at unexpected moments.

But then, a certain ginger haired boy called out her name with a tiny entourage of boys from his grade she didn't know. He was sporting a peculiar grin on his face, the kind that made Aiyumi fear that her secrets weren't safe, as if they had been scattered amongst the students of this school.

"I heard about what happened on Friday night," Rui said as he raised his eyebrows a few times. Aiyumi's jaw dropped as she raised up.

"How did you-?!"

"I've got my sources." Rui replied in a crafty tone, prompting Aiyumi to drive a kick in his shin and sent him onto the ground. He was moaning in pain while laughing at the same time as Aiyumi glared down at him with her cheeks red.

After a few moments, he recovered and rose up again. He put a hand on Aiyumi's shoulder and received a hesitant glare from Aiyumi.

"All I have to say is good job." Rui remarked.

"You're rotten, you know that?" Aiyumi said with her cheeks puffed up.

"That I may be, but I didn't confess to a barely sober boy." Rui pointed.

Aiyumi took a deep breath," He probably forgot about it, so it doesn't matter."

"Oh no, he remembers. I talked to him a couple of minutes ago." Rui claimed.

"What?!" Aiyumi cried. Aiyumi felt her heart racing all over again as she turned her back to Rui.

"Then that means, I'm going to actually get a response today.." Aiyumi said under her breath.

"Would you relax? I keep telling you, you have a chance! You can't strike out with him." Rui assured.

"You sure?" Aiyumi said as she turned to face Rui, looking up at his blue-grey eyes.

"Positive." Rui reassured.

After a couple of moments, Rui's entourage grew bored and dragged Rui somewhere else, relieving Aiyumi. She sighed softly to herself, wishing she could believe what Rui had just said. She looked down to the floor as she thought more about Rikuto and his response.

"It hasn't even been so long since I felt like this..."

During first period, everyone she sat with was deliberately and constantly bugging her about the bonfire and how impressed they were with her. It made her both anxious for next period and had her heart race again.

Next period was really relaxed class-wise. Since the play was over, the class really felt without purpose. Without something to work towards, it really felt like the class was falling to shambles gradually and the teacher was aware of this. A couple of kids were skipping, but the majority of the class attended; likely to talk about the bonfire.

"Dude, do you even remember anything from Friday?" One student asked Rikuto with a scoff.

"Oh yeah, half of it, the rest is a bit of a blur though.." Rikuto responded sheepishly. Aiyumi glanced over to Rikuto with her heart pounding in her head, believing Rikuto was implying he remembered what happened between him and Aiyumi.

After a few minutes, Aiyumi grew ridiculously impatient. She was tapping her foot against the floor and watched the clock on the wall as time went by.

"It's been ten minutes, why isn't he approaching me." Aiyumi groaned in her head.

_"He doesn't expect me to take the initiative again. He's the one who has to respond to me! I can't just keep drawing out the actions here! Maybe, he's embarrassed, or maybe he was to gloat in his fifteen minutes of fame. Maybe he won't respond to me today, maybe he won't tomorrow either! Ugh, what I never get his respon-?!"_

"Aiyumi?" Rikuto, who was right in front of her, asked.

Aiyumi retracted back, not realizing Rikuto had been there the entire time.

"Can we go talk outside?" He asked.

Aiyumi nodded her head violently and walked uneasily behind Rikuto. She was digging her nails into her palms as she walked behind him and kept her head down. A few people in the class noticed them walking out together. Some of them dismissed the action as nothing out of ordinary and a few couldn't help but bat an eyelash while a select few were feeling excited themselves for what was about to happen.

They were outside of the class room and Rikuto leaned against the wall. Aiyumi was looking towards him with rather eager eyes. Rikuto however was looking in another direction, as if adverting his gaze from Aiyumi.

He eventually did look Aiyumi in the eye though and spoke up.

"I'm sorry about what happened later Friday night.." Rikuto apologized.

"It's no problem, besides you were already drinking before we started talking," Aiyumi chuckled awkwardly. Rikuto laughed with her too and then the laughter died down. The two stood in silence and Rikuto let out a couple of sighs. They weren't light ones, they were weighed down with emotions. These sighs made Aiyumi feel weary and unsure of what was going to happen now.

He finally spoke up once more.

"Aiyumi..I, I..I don't feel the same way." He said in a grim tone.

Aiyumi stood there feeling her knees grow weak and her heart sink. She looked down to Rikuto's shoes, unable to look him in the face without feeling tears form in her eyes. She sighed a small sigh and Rikuto began to say a few more things.

"You're a really awesome friend, I just don't think I.."Rikuto trailed off and he started to look back in the direction he was looking into before. The silence formed once more and Aiyumi just felt awful. Maybe this wouldn't of hurt so much if her friends didn't get her hopes up. The two of them just stood there awkwardly, Aiyumi felt frozen in place and Rikuto just seemed..distant.

"I also never.." She heard Rikuto say very quietly, one could barely hear but Aiyumi was pretty alert right now. He trailed off again and Aiyumi didn't want to ask him to finish his sentence, but she was curious. Never what? Never been in a relationship? Never been in love? Aiyumi stared down Rikuto while he looked the other way. He was deemed the most innocent and childlike in the class, well up until the bonfire. He must've really still been a kid inside and out. Aiyumi walked back into the class without Rikuto and a lot of the students were watching her with anticipating expressions. Noticing how down Aiyumi seemed, the majority of the students figured she was shut down.

Aiyumi sat in the corner of the room and shortly after, Shinobu approached her.

"I'm sorry about Rikuto," She said softly. She offered a hug but Aiyumi declined, knowing a simple hug wouldn't make her feel better. After that, Aiyumi shut out everyone else in the class. And what hurt the most was that nobody a made a single effort to cheer her up after that.

During her spare she sat against the wall of hallway that joint two halls with classrooms in them and thought about what just happened. Rikuto's words were pounding in her head and all she wanted was for them to go away. She thought about today's meeting to put herself at ease, but that only made her feel worse. She remembered how she received a text from Asuko saying she had something she needed to do for dance class tonight. Aiyumi didn't mind, someone would fill her in later. She also had a text from Kaoru that said she couldn't make it because she already made plans. Fair enough, that meant Kai and Shinobu were the only ones attending today. But then she realized something. Kai wasn't there in class today. Aiyumi felt an awful feeling in her stomach as she realized less than half the people she invited were coming. Of all days to be absent, Kai chose today? Aiyumi sighed again, feeling as if a headache could come over her at any given moment now if she kept stressing about this afternoon.

As she thought about the disappointment that was Rikuto's response and her friends not showing up, she noticed the air smelt a little, toxic. She stood up and took a few steps to see if she could find the cause to this air pollution.

At the corner of the hall, she discovered cans of open paint sitting around in front a wall. Aiyumi crossed her arms, noting how careless this was, and then looked towards the wall. Painted on it was the school mural that was proposed to be painted during the long weekend and it appeared to be mostly done. Someone in grade higher than Aiyumi designed what the mural would be of and Aiyumi had to admit, it sure did look cool.

"They could've at least put the lids on the paint cans.." Aiyumi complained as she brought her shirt up to her nose.

"But right now, this has to be the least of my worries.." She sighed, reminding herself once more of the fact almost all of her friends declined her invite.

"Now how am I supposed to tell them?" She whined as she folded her arms and put them behind her head," They wouldn't believe me if I texted them. Hell, I don't think they'd believe me if I told them to their faces. So now how am I supposed to prove myself to them?"

Aiyumi suddenly heard what sounded like her phone's ringtone and took it out with slight confusion. Nobody calls people these days, who in their right mind would when you could just text? For a brief moment, she assumed it was none other than some telemarketer but as she checked the caller ID, she found out it was Shinobu. She rushed outside so she wouldn't disturb any classes through one of the nearby exits.

"Hello?" Aiyumi said cautiously, wondering if Shinobu pocket-dialed her.

"Hey,um is anyone coming this afternoon?" Shinobu asked.

Aiyumi's pupils shrunk in fear, but she knew just what to say,"Yeah, everyone's coming..it's kinda urgent so you better come!"

"Ok, see you then!" Shinobu said as she hung up.

Aiyumi felt kinda bad about lying to the naive girl, but if she didn't, Shinobu wouldn't show up. It took Aiyumi a little while to realize, but Shinobu was only interested in gatherings if a crowd was around.

"I just wanna give up on this right about now.." Aiyumi facepalmed.

When Aiyumi arrived home, (without Shinobu, who said she'd come later) she threw her bag against the room and over her little brother's head.

"Hey watch it! If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit busy here." Her brother, Nikkou, droned as he glued his large eyes to the tv as he played a video game.

Aiyumi curiously looked over to the screen to see what game he was playing. She seemed unimpressed by what she saw; another of his fighting games. She stomped up to her room and threw herself on to her bed.

Musa, who was standing on her computer desk, looked greatly concerned and listened for footsteps following her but none were heard.

"Aiyumi where's everyone else-dayo?" Musa asked.

"None of them could make it." Aiyumi replied, her voice muffled with her face pressed into her pillow.

"Oh..so I take things didn't go well with Rikuto?" Musa asked.

Aiyumi didn't even respond or move but after a few moments, Musa could hear Aiyumi sobbing into her pillow. Musa brought her a box of tissues lying under the computer chair and stood beside her.

"It's been a long day.." Aiyumi sobbed as she separated her face from the pillow. Her eyes were quite red and tears were racing down her cheeks. She gingerly took a tissue from Musa and blew her nose into it. This alone time, with just her and Musa in her room was much needed. Here, she could cry her eyes out and not worry anyone besides Musa and maybe even Nikkou because no one would know. Crying in front of people was too much for her to handle, she didn't really like all those stares of pity beating down on her. It felt good to cry here, to finally let out all her pent-up of feelings of hurt and that hint of betrayal.

Then a thought came to her.

"Maybe that's why I sigh so much.." Aiyumi sniffled.

That got Musa's attention as she waited for her response.

"Because I know the worst is yet to come and it doesn't stop coming."

As Aiyumi cried a bit more, Musa stood there unsure of what she could do to bring Aiyumi spirits up. Somehow, this didn't seem like the type of hurt that could just be reversed with a present of some sort. It almost appeared like Aiyumi had been dealing with these feelings for awhile now. Did all humans here experience this pain? Or was it just her?

Aiyumi felt as if she entered a world of hurt, though it may have seemed to be an exaggerated pain by others. But that's just how she felt, she couldn't push aside any of these feelings, they were controlling her mind right now and it was just, painful. Aiyumi thought to herself how today could've possibly ended up like this? She hated knowing that since Rikuto rejected her, her mind would begin to delete the smallest of memories between the two of them, and she really didn't want that. She knew she was going to get over him but right now, she just didn't want to.

Musa watched as Aiyumi was drawn into herself and tried to devise some sorta plan to cheer her up, but still nothing was coming to mind. Maybe just leaving her be would be best right now. What's the worst that could've happen?

Eventually, Aiyumi settled down, but anyone could tell she still wasn't feeling her best. Musa noted how she fixated herself on her computer and didn't even touch her homework. It worried her a bit, but Aiyumi was a good kid so she assumed she'd catch up later. That night, she slept soundlessly, but the next morning, she almost appeared exhausted from dreaming. She stayed in bed for a little while after she got up, which worried Musa greatly.

"Aiyumi, you're going to be late-dayo! It's already 7:45!" Musa warned.

Aiyumi ignored her and shortly after, Aiyumi's mom came in.

"Are you feeling alright?" Her mother asked in a very gentle tone as she sat herself on the side of Aiyumi's bed.

Aiyumi shook her head and whispered," I think I have a fever."

Her mother than placed the back of her hand on Aiyumi's forehead. A small frown was present on her face as she determined her daughter's temperature.

"You do feel a bit warm. How about you stay in bed for a little bit and I'll see how you're feeling in an hour?" Her mother suggested.

Aiyumi nodded and her mother left her in bed.

"Why didn't you tell me you were feeling sick-dayo?!" Musa yell-whispered as Aiyumi's mother was out of earshot.

"Because I'm not.." Aiyumi responded flatly in a groggy tone,"..Not physically sick anyways.."

"Then why aren't you going to school-dayo?" Musa asked ignorantly.

"Because I can't handle it right now. I need some time to recover from yesterday.." Aiyumi explained.

"You had all of yesterday afternoon though-dayo!" Musa claimed.

"I just don't want to see my friends or Rikuto today ok?" Aiyumi shot back.

"But you'll get behind on your schoolwork-dayo.." Musa pointed out, now persuading Aiyumi to go to school.

"I've got all of the weekend to do it.." Aiyumi countered," It's a half-day tomorrow and my afternoon classes are the ones I get homework in."

"Well, Aiyumi I don't think it very good of you to skip school over this-dayo!" Musa declared.

"That may be true, but what you saw yesterday was a minor, but painful, mental breakdown from yours truly. So, do you think it'd be mentally healthy for me to go to school after all of that?"

Musa didn't respond and yet that was all the response Aiyumi needed.

"That's what I thought." Aiyumi concluded.

"So what are you going to do all day?" Musa asked.

"I dunno, probably listen to music, maybe draw, something to get my mind off of yesterday." Aiyumi considered as she grabbed a black, narrow, curved case from her side table. She opened it hesitantly and stared down into what inside of them. A pair of large, square framed glasses that were light pink and white at the sides. She put them on and blinked in surprise, her eyes adjusting to their perfected vision.

"I was wondering what was in that case.." Musa thought aloud," But Aiyumi, you wear glasses-dayo?"

Aiyumi nodded at the greatly confused Musa.

"How come you never wear them then-dayo?!" Musa asked.

"Not never, I just wear my contacts nowadays. My vision's awful though, I've been wearing glasses since the first grade." Aiyumi confessed.

"So when did you get contacts-dayo?" Musa asked curiously.

"About a couple of months ago actually." Aiyumi replied.

Aiyumi then proceeded to listen to music from her Aipod while playing around with a ball of clay lying around. As she played around with the clay, she began to think deeply about that unfinished thought of Rikuto that he left for Aiyumi.

_"Never been..what?" Never felt this way? Never had someone like him? Never thought a girl would fall for him? _

An idea popped up in Aiyumi's head and she perked up at the thought of it. Maybe, Rikuto was overwhelmed with Aiyumi's sudden confession. Maybe, just maybe, he felt the same way but he didn't feel ready and attempted to conceal his feelings in front of Aiyumi!

_"It makes perfect sense though, to an extent." _

"Maybe I could put his possible secret affection to the test.." Aiyumi mused, and then considered a few ideas on how to do this, and then finally devising one giant plan to find out whether he really did like her or not.

Aiyumi went down stairs slowly and made sure she didn't appear to be full of energy in fear her mother would've caught on to the fact that she was never sick. It was about two o'clock right now, so showing a slight improvement in her health probably would've been ok.

"Are you feeling better?" Her mom asked as she saw Aiyumi coming down the stairs.

"Yeah, a lot better.." Aiyumi said briskly.

"That's good to hear," Her mom said in a tone of relief.

"I guess most of it was just in my head.." Aiyumi confessed sheepishly,"Would it be alright if I went to the school in an hour to pick up all the assignments I missed?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to?" Her mother asked," Your teachers may be a bit skeptic."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine.." Aiyumi reassured with a wave of her hand. She dashed up to her room and threw on her uniform, put her hair into low pigtails secured by flowing neon pink ribbons and wore her favourite bright blue knee-highs under her fish-net leg-warmers (yes she actually had those.) She put on her favorite pinkish-red lipstick, it's shade being called Charmed and finally put in her contacts.

"He won't resist me now.." She smirked to herself in a devilish tone.

"She's gone delirious-dayo.."Musa groaned.

Technically, it was after school right now, but a certain brunette with green eyes and a few of his classmates were kept back in class to clean up a chemistry assignment. Just about everyone was done, but Rikuto's partners had to abandon him briefly on account of a student council issue. He didn't mind, he liked the emptiness of the lab. It was wondrous and a little spooky at the same time. He went to get some paper towels and sponges since the teacher asked him so nicely before and when he returned, he was a bit startled with what he found.

The room was empty, save for one person with their hair in twin-tails and leaning forward on one of the tables. They had this insanely determined look mixed with some form of seduction on their faces and between their index and middle finger was a full beacon.

"Why hello there, Rikuto.." Aiyumi said in an attempt at sexy, but more sex-deprived tone," Or should I say, Ri_cute_o?

"A-Aiyumi..." Rikuto stammered quite awkwardly.

"Is it hot in here or is it just you?" She flirted as she walked towards Rikuto and wrapped her arms around him.

Rikuto just stood there with no idea of what he was supposed to do. He was avoiding eye-contact with her right now, and wasn't sure how to handle this situation delicately.

"Aiyumi, why are you doing this?" He eventually asked in what sounded like an almost irritated tone.

"Because I'm crushing on you~" She said as she placed her hands on his back and her head in his chest. Rikuto was bright red but he knew he had to put some end to this.

"Aiyumi, this really isn't like you.." Rikuto said as he put his hands on her shoulders,"What gives?"

"Don't be like that~" Aiyumi crooned as she snuggled on his chest.

"Look Aiyumi, I fell in love with someone else that night at the bonfire." Rikuto confessed.

Aiyumi could feel tears in her eyes all over again, but she really didn't want to cry in front of Rikuto. Why was doing this anyways, what was she supposed to expect really?

"Let's forget this ever happened.." Aiyumi said with her head down as she was about to run out of the room.

"Aiyumi, wait!" Rikuto called out, but suddenly, two figures could be heard approaching the lab.

"Hide!" Rikuto told Aiyumi, who dimly hid behind him. He was average height for a boy his age and she was petite, so it only made sense to her. It was actually a decent hiding spot for her, their backs were against each other and her hands were in Rikuto's.

"Sorry about that." Osamu said with a taller boy behind him as the two walked in," So I guess we'll help you clean?"

"You know what? I can take over and just finish it up, there's not much here anyways.." Rikuto said as Aiyumi literally sunk a little behind him.

Osamu seemed a bit puzzled, "Are you sure, because we're already he-"

"Yeah, don't worry about it!" Rikuto insisted. The two of them exchanged glances and just as they were about to leave, they all heard a shriek, followed by a monstrous roar.

"What was that?'' Rikuto and Osamu asked in unison.

"Uh-oh.." Aiyumi said quietly as she slowly reached for her Illumicase.

"You guys get out of here!" Rikuto shouted.

"But what about you?!" Osamu shouted back while his friend behind him looked about ready to flee at this point.

"I'll clean up the mess!" Rikuto yelled.

"Are you kidding me?!" Osamu shot back.

"Just go!"

Osamu was a little startled by Rikuto's change of tone and decided to leave as he requested.

"You need to get out of here." Rikuto said as he turned to face Aiyumi, who was now perched on the ground.

"What about you? Don't try and play hero here!" Aiyumi yelled.

"I've got to clean up the-"

"Are you actually more concerned about cleaning a mess than your own life?!" Aiyumi shouted. She started pushing Rikuto out of the room with some avail but got exhausted just as they reached the door.

The two of them could hear lockers getting beaten down and glass shattering from the doorways. The two went out of the room and found a Vandalart made from the mural from yesterday on the wall. The Vandalart was literally made from a chunk of the wall.

"What made them think that was a good idea?" Aiyumi moaned to herself.

Neodia then appeared standing on a row of lockers. She glowered down to Aiyumi and Rikuto with her arms folded over her chest.

"Will she transform in front of him?" Neodia wondered in a quiet tone.

_"How am I supposed to get Rikuto out of here?" _Aiyumi thought to herself_," Oh, I know! We can make a run for it and then I trip and say the line in the movies where they're are like 'Go on without me!" _

"We have to get out of here!" Aiyumi yelled to Rikuto. He nodded and just as the two were about to make a run for it, the end of the hall became blocked by lasers.

"Gee, I wonder who did that.." Aiyumi remarked sarcastically as she turned to face Neodia. Neodia blew off her finger and waited for Aiyumi to make her move.

"Maybe we should call for help.." Rikuto suggested.

"I don't really think this is something a teacher would be able to deal with.." Aiyumi pointed out.

"Not them!" Rikuto snapped. He thought of the girl with green hair he saw at the bonfire,''..What if she could.."

"Since she won't transform..Vandalart!" Neodia called out.

"..Get rid of this place." She commanded.

The Vandalart did as told and began to destroy the hallway and started to head for the main hall.

"No!" Aiyumi screamed. She darted her head towards Rikuto.

"Stay in the lab..I'll go get help." Aiyumi said in a forcefully calm tone.

"But you just said-"

"-I'll go get help."

Rikuto sighed a small sigh and went into the lab.

"Finally.." Neodia droned while Aiyumi took out her Illumicase.

"Pretty Cure, Imagine..GO!" Aiyumi shouted as the spectrum of lights absorbed her.

"Inspiring the artist that longs for a muse, Cure Create!" Create introduced.

As Create fought against the Vandalart, Neodia noticed something strange with Create as she fought. She wasn't very energetic, she appeared, gloomy even. Of course, she still tried to fight with all her power, but that didn't seem to be working out for her today.

"Every time I transform.." Create began while she threw unmotivated punches at the Vandalart,"..I keep hoping that my own problems will just disappear."

"For a magical girl, you're pretty depressed." Neodia noted.

Create took a halt from fighting to Vandalart to deliver a response to Neodia: Excuse me?

"Your movements read depressed and the only logical explanation would have something to do with that boy." Neodia guessed.

"It's really none of your business." Create disclosed in a near bitter while she fought against the Vandalart.

"It technically is if you're bringing it along with you to the battlefield." Neodia stated.

"I got rejected ok? And I don't about you, but I am perfectly fine with being upset about it for now! Because there's nothing else to do about it except get over it!"

"So basically, a wasted effort?" Neodia questioned.

Create shook her head violently," Not entirely.." She thought of how she and Rikuto shared that precious fleeting moment where they looked up at the sky entwining their fingers. She lowered her voice to a whisper, "I just don't think it was a wasted effort. And at least now, I'm ok with letting him go."

"Well, while we're talking about magical girl clichés.." Create began as she threw a punch that slammed the Vandalart into a locker,"..Why do you hate art so much?"

Neodia was genuinely surprised she'd ask such a question. She hated to admit it, but she never thought about why. She was told from the start that art and anyone who stood for it was the enemy.

She didn't give Create a response and pretended to act like she didn't deserve one.

"You don't need to know my reasons." She declared in her usual robotic tone.

" Don't have one huh?" Create teased as she clamped her hands together.

"Pretty Cure, Artistic Zion!" Create cried.

The air was enclosed with graphite and charcoal causing the Vandalart to be lost in it's surroundings along with everyone else.

Create coughed into arm, "It shouldn't be that hard to find it. It's a giant mural for goodness' sakes."

She soon found it and found out with just a strong push against the air, she was able to disperse some of the charcoal and graphite on her own. She decided to see how well she could control the charcoal and graphite. She bent her fingers and gripped the air. She saw the graphite and charcoal around her clumping together and that gave her an idea. She pressed her hands together and the graphite and charcoal around her was turned into a large pillar. She saw the Vandalart and dropped the pillar down on it

"Gotcha!" Create shouted as the charcoal and graphite disappeared. The Vandalart was out of energy and that meant there was only one thing left to do.

"Pretty Cure.." Create shouted as the atmosphere became a spectrum of colours, more prominently green.

"..Inspiration Sensation!" She yelled as the Vandalart was purified, leaving only a picture of the mural for Create.

"I might wanna asking about why these keep showing up, I practically have a collection of them.." Create said as the picture flew down into her hands. She then looked at herself and Neodia who happened to be a few feet away.

"Woah, we're all charcoaled.." Create chuckled as she brushed off some of the charcoal on her hands.

"You mean you're all charcoaled." Neodia corrected.

"You might wanna another look at yourself.." Create advised while holding back a giggle.

Neodia looked down at herself and touched her face to see if was any charcoaled there. She seemed embarrassed when she saw her pale hand stained with charcoal from her face. She left and Create just stood there in the restored hallway.

"So this is either really good, or really bad for your pores.." Create giggled as she felt the charcoal on her face.

The next morning, she felt a bit better about the whole Rikuto situation and now she was prepared to tell her friends finally.

"Are you really sure you're ready-dayo?" Musa asked from inside her backpack.

"Yes! You've been badgering me about for God knows how long so I might as well get it over with.." Aiyumi whispered as she walked to her locker nervously.

"Hey Aiyumi," One boy said to her as he was walking," Where were you yesterday?"

"I..had a fever." Aiyumi said in a flustered voice.

"Who was that-dayo?" Musa asked.

"I'll..tell you later." Aiyumi said as she approached her locker. All her friends were assembled here, since she asked them so nicely through text.

"So what is it?" Kai spoke for the group.

"Let's go somewhere more private.." Aiyumi said as she let them a little far out, almost inside the mini forest she found Musa in.

"I've been needing to tell you guys this for a little while now, so..here I go.."


End file.
